Preamps can color sound considerably. Surprising?
Had the pleasure of listening to 4 hi end preamplifiers this weekend. And each preamp sounded very nice. But they were different. Each preamplifier has different circuitry and within the frequency spectrum there was more vibrancy in some areas versus other areas. Amplifiers are the same way.
It takes a while to appreciate sound differences between preamplifiers. And then you got the issue of Breakin which further changes the color.
clearly designers are playing around with all the internal circuitry in a manner that hopefully will be appealing. Clearly, these units do not get out of the way when it comes to moving a signal through the box.
I think solid state is more susceptible to coloring versus tubes. Tubes color sound as well.
It's all about marketing different ways to color Music. This isn't necessarily bad but it's never really talked about this way.
Well said. Charles |
Cary Direct must have seen some logic in this. If the gear is purchased from them without Cary performing any modifications on it, they do advertise a refund policy if it doesn’t work out on audition. |
The only surprise, to me, is that anyone would possibly think a component would NOT color/distort the sound. If perfection was so easy, why would we need to spend more than $200 on an integrated amp? Are designers "playing with the sound"? Hmm. I would not say i play with the sound, but i do make choices based on subjective likes as much or more than objective measures - most of which appear to be below the threshold of audibility anyway. Which only proves we are missing some measurements..... The Phono stage is particular is ridiculously complex and difficult - it is both a precise (and multi-stage) high frequency roll off filter and also needs to do, by far, the most amplification of any unit in the signal chain - between 100X and 1500X depending on your cartridge. By way of contrast the line stage of the preamp might amplify 3-10X and a power amp (note 1) 15-30X. That is very difficult on many counts, staring with the huge impact of even a tiny amount of noise at the input, first stage, or radiated... G note 1: power amps have other very different -- but very difficult -- issues that are beyond the scope of this discussion |
knotscott353 posts
Bingo....the true meaning of "Hi-fi" refers to the original sound as recorded. Everything downstream of that is variation of some sort .... we just get to decide if it's a more pleasant variation or a less pleasant variation, and choose accordingly, but it remains a variation. In that sense, the best systems simply reveal with as little coloration as possible, |
