Matching preamp to amp


Many have said that matching one component to another is important. So what do you look for in matching an amp (Cinenova) to a preamp?
clydemetz

Showing 5 responses by gunbei

Marakanetz has it right.

Usually the easiest way is to use the same brand, but that may not necessarily be what you'll musically like the best. Did that make sense? Heheh.

Components within a certain brand shouldn't have impedance matching problems, but when mixing different brands careful selection is necessary. Case in point. I auditioned a friend's Pass Aleph 3 for a month and loved its sound. Fabulous on guitars and great layering front to back! But its low 23Kohm input impedance wasn't a good match for my system, which resulted in big loss of dynamics even with the volume cranked way up. In the end, even with the great sound I couldn't consider owning it with my current system.

What Marakantz has detailed is a good guideline for matching any preamp to an amp, but it becomes even trickier when throwing a passive preamp into the mix. Then you have to consider the output impedance and output voltage of your source components along with the amp's input impedance.
Clyde, what we've done is to give you a heads up on possible problems, because in most cases you shouldn't have a problem.

My experience of impedance mismatching with the excellent Aleph 3 is a pretty well known issue and was corrected to a great extent with the release of the Aleph 30. The input imedance of this amp was bumped from 23Kohms to 47Kohms which is pretty much in the standard. The BAT VK200 I use has an input impedance of 100Kohms.

I checked up on the Cinenova Grande 5 and it actually has a pretty low 27Kohm rating, so as Marakanetz advised make sure the preamp you pick has enough gain to drive it. I'm confident you won't run into problems though because this is a popular amp for home theater and most processors should be able to mate with it.

Good luck!
Hi Kool. Yeah, It may be that the AI has a lot of gain. But its 1.2Kohm output impedance mated to the Aragon with 22Kohm input impedance actually works out to 18 times, so it's well within the 10 times guideline. I've heard people say the range is 10-100 times.
Max,

I've owned the BC21 and BC22 for almost two years now and had no idea what the specs were!!! Obviously they match very well, and have a nice sound. If your specs are correct it creates an interesting conundrum for me because the preamp that didn't match with the Aleph 3 was in fact the BC21! Oh well.

If you get the BC21.1, it should have a sonic signature a bit closer to neutral [whatever that is] because they use 6922 tubes as opposed to the 6SN7s in the BC21. The BC21 has a very nice full bodied midrange and upper bass for those folks that like that. I do. ;-]

Unsound, what approach does Rowland take to power matching? Thanks.
Max,

Congrats on getting the BC21.1. Gilbert and Blue Circle are the kind of people that make this hobby fun. I'm thinking of ordering a pair of his high heel pump monoblocks! Did you get your BC21.1 with the Shallco stepped attenuator?

A passive pre that I like very much is the Luminous Audio AXIOM which in its basic form is only $125. With the AXIOM in the path it's obvious what the BC21 adds to the sound because no one region of the sonic spectrum is accentuated. What I noticed as the main differences are its balanced sound and excellent, detailed bass. However, with the AXIOM the midrange magic is missing and the depth of soundstage and liquid flow is gone as well. Ahh, those 6SN7 tubes!

http://cgi.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cl.pl?preatran&1068325570

I still think the AXIOM is an excellent unit and Tim with Luminous Audio will make sure you get a unit that matches the output voltage and impedance of your source and input impedance of your amp. He'll also take in to consideration the sensitivity of your speakers and configure a unit that has the right amount of degrees of attenuation for your application.

It only has one input and one output, so it's basically just an attenuator, and it's about the size of a portable Smartdisk Firewire drive. Even if I rarely use it I won't sell it because I like it and who knows, I may be in your situation one day.

Good luck!