Preamp - what's the purpose?


Intentionally dumb question...

I've heard various 5-15W tube amps in my room. EL84, 300B, etc. They all have input stages and the output stage. I send them a line-level signal from a DAC.

Sitting a few meters away from my loudspeakers, the first watt alone gives me roughly 80db of volume. I think these amps are biased to expect the line level signal directly. Why wouldn't the designer do that?

So what's the point of adding a pre-amp? Why do people do it?

thanks in advance

 

clustrocasual

A preamp is primarily a switching center. If you don't need it don't worry about it. 

a preamp has MANY benefits.

Input source selection.
Volume and balance controls.
Tone controls, YES, tone controls. They are invaluable in my opinion, especially if the source music is not perfect, also room layout, speaker placement, so much can affect the sound and tone controls can go a long way to 'compensate' for any short comings.
I use Baxandall tone controls in my custom builds, one the best tone control circuits out there. I also offer a tone defeat switch, very handy when a 'pure' line preamp is desired for certain listening sessions.

Many preamps have subwoofer circuitry with high pass filters and gain control too. The switching ability, volume control, remote control and multiple analog and digital inputs/outputs are very important to me.  The pleasure of a tube preamp allows for a different dimension in sound quality too.  

That’s the thing these days, most dac sources have subwoofer circuitry with high pass filters and gain control.  My Oppo 205 has all these features plus many more including surround 7.1. I run it direct to my power amp through balanced XLR connection.