Ralph Karsten (Atma-Sphere) has in a few threads here lately discussed the issue of the benefits of an active pre-amp in certain system set-ups vs. the penalties. If you can find them in the Audiogon Forum, you will learn all there is to know on the subject. Ralph really covers all the trade-offs involved between the two approaches, providing all the facts necessary to help one decide which approach is better for a given system.
Should I eliminate my preamp?
I have been using my Audio Research tube preamp and Bryston amp to drive Magnepan speakers for years. Recently I added a Oppo blue ray player to my system and connected directly to my amp using the balance cables. The reason was to eliminate the signal having to go through another piece of equipment before it hits the amp. Am I wrong or what am I missing?
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In this particular case, its a bit of apples and oranges. The ARC is single-ended, but the Oppo has balanced capability as does the amp. The simple fact is that balanced often sounds better because of improved cable immunity, and that the amp might sound better driven by a balanced source. The ARC OTOH is getting a bit long in the tooth- and is certainly old enough to have filter caps failing as well as tubes. In this case, I'd be all about dumping the preamp until its serviced out, but that is not to say that an active balanced preamp would not be able to help. Right now there are a few too many variables to be scientific about it. |
This is exactly what I recently did. I bought an Oppo Sonica DAC and asked myself "what do I need a preamp for?" Like you, I have an ARC pre-amp (SP-6B) but since I no longer listing to vinyl, I was just using it as a volume control. The Sonica DAC has a perfectly good digital volume control which sounds fine to me. Plus, the Sonica DAC has balanced XLR outputs, and my Rane AC22B crossover has balanced inputs. I noticed a marked improvement in quiet when getting rid of the SP6B and it's single-ended interconnects, and moving the the DAC/Crossover/balanced XLR setup. How could an extra piece of gear in the signal path improve anything? My SP-6B recently came back from service at ARC, and I'm am wondering if I should sell it. There are a lot of new vinyl fans out there who might want it (along with my SOTA Sapphire turntable, Linn ITOK II tonearm, and the Dynavector Karat 23R cartridge). |
No doubt, you have to listen to your system with and without and decide which sounds better...and in my own system, no doubt at all, much better with the preamp than Oppo direct to the power amp..in the mean time, just for fun, check out this video... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh27E7YKN9s |
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