Dear all,
I am relative novice to the world of hifi, so please bear with me and my ignorance.
Earlier this week, while reading some good reviews of a SS power amp called ‘Nuforce STA200’
https://www.optoma.co.uk/audioproduct/sta200 I landed up ordering one on ebay as I found a good deal on it. Haven’t received it yet. Expecting to receive it by the end of this month. Apparently this power amp is similar (not the same) to the ‘Job 225’ power amp. Also a well reviewed amp.
While waiting for my ST200 to arrive I have been looking for a complimenting/matching and reasonably priced (<$1000) second hand or new preamp to match this STA200 with. Ideally i would like a preamp with about 4 or 5 rca inputs and, if I could be greedy, a decent built in phono (mm/mc) and a good DAC. But these are not important as I have a seperate phono and DAC. Most important is to have a good sound quality match between the amp and preamp.
On reading more about the STA200 (after buying it) it turns out that it has a higher than normal ‘gain’ at 34.8db. I believe the normal gain for a power amp is in the region of 27db? Given the higher than normal gain of my ST200 what preamp do you good folks recommend?
I found a second hand Rotel RC1580 preamp
http://www.rotel.com/sites/default/files/product/infosheets/RC1580_InfoSheet.pdf which is withing my budget. Also been looking at the Parasound P5
http://www.parasound.com/p5.phpI would be very grateful if you folks could tell me if these preamp will work without any issues with my ‘higher’ than normal ‘gain’ power amp. I believe i should be worried about something thing called ‘noise’ issues. Also any thoughts on how these preamps will match/compliment the sonic qualities of the ST200 will be much appreciated.
Many thanks!
