Hello atmosphere,
Thank you for pointing out accurately that a HT Bypass switch is not technically necessary on a preamp since using the proper unity gain position on the preamp's volume control can be used as a substitute. I was trying to keep the ease of use and concept understanding as high as possible because I wasn't sure of Hits' technical knowledge and audio experience.
I've always really enjoyed listening to music played back via a high quality completely tube based system even though I realize it's not completely accurate and is imparting a 2nd harmonic warmth or coloration to the music. Years ago, I understood that tube distortion tends to become audible on even ordered harmonics, that sounds much more pleasant to us than solid state distortion that tends to become audible on the odd ordered harmonics. But I was building a combination stereo music and 5.1 surround HT system and knew that an all tube system was impractical.
So, I originally added the VTL tube preamp and swapped the standard tubes for NOS Mullard tubes in an effort in my system to attain the 2nd harmonic 'warmth' coloration that's often blamed on tubes, and that I liked, because I thought it was the only method to add that characteristic to my system's sound on stereo music playback at the time.
I began by pairing a good quality tube preamp with various good quality class AB solid state amps. I never considered utilizing an amp to attempt to improve the sq performance of my system until I purchased an inexpensive Class D Audio SDS-440-CS amp that was a revelation to me. This amp had extremely low measured distortion levels and the most accurate and neutral quality that I'd ever experienced in an amplifier, like the audio ideal of 'a straight wire with gain' with nothing added or subtracted from the inputted signals. I considered the stunning neutrality of this class D amp a revelation and it began my thinking of the possibilities.
I only discovered a while later, through personal experimentation, about the alternative method of using very well recorded music sources played back via high quality and very neutral components along with very detailed and revealing speakers. I found out that this type of system would also reproduce music in my room that possessed the warmth, detail, texture and three dimensional palpable qualities I really enjoyed experiencing when listening to music.
It only required the combination of a neutral high quality preamp (the Oppo 105's preamp section), a neutral high quality amp (the Class D Audio amp and subsequently a pair of D-Sonic M#-600-M class D mono-blocks) and detailed and revealing speakers(a pair of Magnepan 2.7QRs) to achieve the sound qualities I previously thought only a tube preamp could provide.
Now it's just a matter of whether the recording is of a sufficiently high quality level to have captured the natural music qualities of warmth, detail, texture and other palpable characteristics. I think I couldn't achieve these results using my VTL tube preamp because it wasn't neutral enough but I realize you may have good ideas of how to accomplish these sound characteristics using a combination of more neutral tube components.
It's a bit of a compromise that the better the quality of the recording, the better the music sounds but I consider this prerequisite completely natural, logical and acceptable given the outstanding sound quality results.
Thank you,
Tim
Thank you for pointing out accurately that a HT Bypass switch is not technically necessary on a preamp since using the proper unity gain position on the preamp's volume control can be used as a substitute. I was trying to keep the ease of use and concept understanding as high as possible because I wasn't sure of Hits' technical knowledge and audio experience.
I've always really enjoyed listening to music played back via a high quality completely tube based system even though I realize it's not completely accurate and is imparting a 2nd harmonic warmth or coloration to the music. Years ago, I understood that tube distortion tends to become audible on even ordered harmonics, that sounds much more pleasant to us than solid state distortion that tends to become audible on the odd ordered harmonics. But I was building a combination stereo music and 5.1 surround HT system and knew that an all tube system was impractical.
So, I originally added the VTL tube preamp and swapped the standard tubes for NOS Mullard tubes in an effort in my system to attain the 2nd harmonic 'warmth' coloration that's often blamed on tubes, and that I liked, because I thought it was the only method to add that characteristic to my system's sound on stereo music playback at the time.
I began by pairing a good quality tube preamp with various good quality class AB solid state amps. I never considered utilizing an amp to attempt to improve the sq performance of my system until I purchased an inexpensive Class D Audio SDS-440-CS amp that was a revelation to me. This amp had extremely low measured distortion levels and the most accurate and neutral quality that I'd ever experienced in an amplifier, like the audio ideal of 'a straight wire with gain' with nothing added or subtracted from the inputted signals. I considered the stunning neutrality of this class D amp a revelation and it began my thinking of the possibilities.
I only discovered a while later, through personal experimentation, about the alternative method of using very well recorded music sources played back via high quality and very neutral components along with very detailed and revealing speakers. I found out that this type of system would also reproduce music in my room that possessed the warmth, detail, texture and three dimensional palpable qualities I really enjoyed experiencing when listening to music.
It only required the combination of a neutral high quality preamp (the Oppo 105's preamp section), a neutral high quality amp (the Class D Audio amp and subsequently a pair of D-Sonic M#-600-M class D mono-blocks) and detailed and revealing speakers(a pair of Magnepan 2.7QRs) to achieve the sound qualities I previously thought only a tube preamp could provide.
Now it's just a matter of whether the recording is of a sufficiently high quality level to have captured the natural music qualities of warmth, detail, texture and other palpable characteristics. I think I couldn't achieve these results using my VTL tube preamp because it wasn't neutral enough but I realize you may have good ideas of how to accomplish these sound characteristics using a combination of more neutral tube components.
It's a bit of a compromise that the better the quality of the recording, the better the music sounds but I consider this prerequisite completely natural, logical and acceptable given the outstanding sound quality results.
Thank you,
Tim