Looking for a pre-amp (Pass, ARC, BAT, Sim, PS Audio)
@jmarshak If you are looking for balanced line you might inquire with the manufacturers of the preamps on your list if the product supports the balanced line standard, otherwise known as AES48 (Audio Engineering Society file 48). If the preamp does a side benefit will be that the interconnect cable between the preamp and amp won't play a role in the system sound and you will be able to run it some very long distances if needed. |
@jmarshak Internally balanced has nothing to do with it. You can have the circuit be internally single-ended and still support the balanced standard. In such cases transformers are used. An example of what I'm talking about- if the source puts any signal return currents through the shield (IOW if the shield is important to make the connection) then the equipment does not support the standard. In a proper balanced connection, the shield is for shielding only with no other relationship to the audio signal, quite unlike a single-ended connection! |
My my recommendation would be the Makua preamplifier by Mola Mola. Not only is it an excellent sounding preamplifier but can also be specified with an extremely good and versatile phono input. A dac module can also be specified and in the future it has room for a streamer module to be added through a LAN connection which is already in place. It can be remotely controlled and set up using the Mola Mola app, it has a manual volume control or the volume can be controlled through the app, supplied Apple remote or Mola Mola’s own CNC machined remote at an extra cost. It has 5 pairs of balanced and unbalanced inputs and two pairs of analogue outputs for bi-amping. Separate MC and MM input stages in the phono stage with load resistance and load capacitance selectable using the app. Switchable EQ drop down listing all combinations of record labels is another feature of the phono stage. Also the phono stage has settings for Shelf (bass), the bass turnover point and treble roll-off. |
