2. amps-preamps
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The best preamp without a doubt..in my experience

I have always had a thing for preamplifiers. I tried many of the best brands—just to name a few: Shindo (several), Spectral, Klyne Arts, deHavilland, Berning, Placette, Marantz. I thought I had gotten close to the top as far as preamplification goes...until I got lucky enough to find an EAR G88, which is what deParavicini himself defines his masterpiece. Well, I am dumbfounded. The music flows more naturally, more realistically than ever before. You feel like being in closer touch with the instruments or the voices. The sound is just real, and for the first time I felt like I heard a real bass in my system. It’s an old product. It was produced in the early nineties, and only in 25 exemplars. But if you’re lucky enough to find one...don’t let it go.
ggavetti
larryi
3,719 posts
 
I own four different preamp/linestages: a Placette Active, a Mark Levinson No. 32 (with built in phono), an Emotive Audio Epifania and a custom-built preamp built by Aldo D'Urso. They are all different and I would not want to say which one was unequivocably "the best" among the four.
czarivey
5,691 posts
 
The best preamp IMHO should have ALL possible functions for the best preamp. Everything should be adjustable such as Line gain, Phono gain, Input sensitivity, Balance, multiple outputs, doubled inputs RCA/XLR, Phono input impedance, capacitance adjustability, Adjustable headphone output, Digital inputs(DAC) and Digital outputs (ADC).
Haven't found the best one yet tho...
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,595 posts
 
^^ getting a preamp to jump through all those hoops would be a trick. Balanced and single-ended are inherently incompatible for starters.

to continue:

Adjusting the phono input impedance is something only needed if the phono circuit is unstable with RFI. So a better preamp really does not need adjusting input impedance as 47K is sufficient at least as far as LOMC cartridges are concerned.

The more geegaws you add, the less likely the unit will deliver the bacon...
czarivey
5,691 posts
 
But Ralph, I had a contrary experience. Properly adjusted gain provides the best resolution per desirable loudness. Each and every album you're listening to may have different recording levels and adjustable gain can give you advantage to compensate lack or excess of such

The more geegaws you add, the less likely the unit will deliver the bacon...

I believe that more 'geegaws' simply add-on to the manufacturing cost more than delivering or not delivering bacon.
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,445 posts
 
Ralph, your statement that balanced and single-ended are incompatible reminds me that there is something I've been wondering: Not that you should necessarily be familiar with the designs of your competitors, but you often do seem to be! In the ARC Reference line stages, both RCA and XLR jacks fill the back panel. Unlike EAR products which also have both but provide balanced outputs via a transformer at the back end of a circuit, ARC claims to offer fully-balanced operation via the circuit itself, obviously on the XLR jacks only. Where, then, does the single-ended output come from?
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