There were a lot of vintage amps built with volume controls on them and a number of thx amps allow you to vary the gain to the amp. When you avoid the pre amp and extra stage it can be a good thing but at the same time you will find out that a well designed pre amp will actually outperform a passive circuit with any type of dynamic music, something is lost going all passive.
amplifier with volume control
I began my journey with an active preamp then switched to a placette passive which was more transparent but sucked the life out of my system (but I was using longer interconnects to monoblocks). I have one source (a computer with a usb dac) and am now running direct to my amplifier which sounds much better than my previous 2 configurations. I am using a digital volume control and my thought is to change to an amp with a built in volume control - like an audion - or have a tech install one on my amplifier. My question is how is an amp with a volume control different - if at all- from a passive (simple pot in a box) connected with short interconnects to an amplifier? thank you
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- 33 posts total
- 33 posts total