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Sound without the Preamp ?

I thought I posted this before, but can't find it so here goes. I need some help here. I removed my tubed preamp and plugged the balanced interconnects directly from the 2 tube monoblocks directly to an Accuphase CD player with volume control. A weird thing happened. The sound got better, more transparent, deeper and tighter base. I find this indded strange because, this tube preamp is one of the industry's heavyweights, with a price to prove it too. Am I just "hearing things " ??
et
ronc
32 posts
 
I am currently using my Wadia 27ix/270 combo directly into my monoblocks. I, like you, also have a world-class tube preamp but all the improvements you noted were evident to me also. It seems that, no matter how good the piece, nothing beats "nothing" in the signal path.
redkiwi
1,092 posts
 
No preamp can improve things unless there is something deficient about the output drive capability of your CD player, and only if driving the preamp is easier than driving the power amp. It seems that your Accuphase CD Player drives your amps fine, so why degrade things with imperfect cables, connections, and preamp?
pls1
432 posts
 
I found the same thing removing a top end tub preamp and going directly into my tube monoblocks BUT only after changing my DAC and fiddling with to get the right cables. You were fortunate that it worked on the first try.
carl_eber
1,425 posts
 
No, you definitely aren't just hearing things.
joekras95c0
9 posts
 
I had the same experience with my CJ/AI system. And I am using an old Adcom CD player! Also have an MSB DAC, but removing the preamp (and DAC) makes a bigger difference than including the DAC. I would like to know how these DACs with volume controls rate, or these cheap passive attenuators. I don't wan't to spend 3k on a one box CD player at this time.
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