2. amps-preamps
  3. 1136293264

Best preamp is no preamp: always true?

There seems to be a school of thought that between two well-designed (read no major flaws) CDP and AMP, the best PREAMP is NO PREAMP at all (let's assume that the AMP has a sort of minimalist volume control).

Is this a solid and robust statement? What would be situations where this is not true (still no major design flaws)?
newerphile1cf0
s23chang
615 posts
 
Pick your preference and use your ear.
Afterall, your ear will enjoy the most : )
the_smokester
174 posts
 
newerphile,
Yes. There are some obvious measureable things to avoid otherwise you may possibly be covering up one ill with another. However, I think the general concensus is that, once you have the right gain level and impedences matched, always trust your ears.
newerphile1cf0 OP
7 posts
 
S23chang: I think it will come down to that!
I looked upon the specs of my source and my amp and I see no particular problem with gain (out 2v, in 0.4v), nor impedance (out 325, in 35k). I guess I am free to listen to any preamp then, active or passive!!!!
the_smokester
174 posts
 
newerphile,

"I guess I am free to listen to any preamp then..."

Careful. A resistive passive can interact with interconnect cable capacitance to form a low-pass filter so one should evaluate the other components in the system.

Read this:
http://www.dact.com/html/passive_preamp.html
from the DACT commercial web site and also maybe use this:
http://www.dact.com/html/ac_calculator.html
their attenuation calculator.

There are other, less commercial, technical papers on passive preamps which will probably be revealed with a google search. I can't put my finger on them right now. Also, maybe try the DIY forum over at audio asylum.
s23chang
615 posts
 
From my experience, 3V is min for passive. I have 2V CD players and it just not enough gain
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