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Best Preamp - NO preamp... (?)

A few hours ago I decided to experiment and bypassed my highly regarded, excellent passive preamp and hooked up my PS Audio DSD DAC directly to the power amp.
There is no going back...
Every aspect of the sound has improved so dramatically that I'm simply blown away. I'm a bit shocked, playing CD after CD and I still can't believe it.
My phono stage has gain control as well, so it seems that from now on it will be disconnecting RCAs and plugging each in turn.
Since I usually do vinyl day or cd day (or week) anyway, the trouble seems totally worth it. Letting the cable settle in for a bit is not an issue.
Am I just crazy or are any of you doing the same?
Should I be concerned about damaging  the RCAs over time?
Thanks for your thoughts and experience. :-)
128x128ami
ddafoe
234 posts
 
I guess no preamp is better, unless the preamp is really good! :-)

That has been my experience as well.

For a short while I tried my Berkeley Alpha DAC Series 2 direct into my Pass Labs amplifier (with Magico speakers) and found the sound was super detailed, clean, and dynamic.  I was very impressed. 

I then tried a SimAudio 740P preamp in my system and much preferred the overall sound with the preamp present.   I likely lost a tad bit of detail with dynamics and timbre being similar,  but the BIG difference was in the explosion of soundstage and space between the instruments and vocals.  The added front to back depth and 3d like imaging made me have no desire to save the not insignificant price of the preamp and go back to using the DAC direct. 

Using the DAC direct was like a 2d super detailed presentation, where the 740P made it sound 3d and more like the artists were physically playing in my listening room (albeit maybe not in a recording studio...).

I've heard very big differences while trying various preamps over the years and have no doubt I would prefer the sound of a great DAC like the Berkeley direct in many of these cases; but I'm also unfortunately sold on the value of a great preamp in making one's system sound its best, even when you have a single digital source like me.



mitch2
3,680 posts
 
@mountz
I have tried direct to amp with PS Audio direct stream memory transport and PS Audio DAC to various amps and was underwhelmed by the results in all situations.
That has been my experience too, and that includes using a variety of passives including autoformer passives. My final effort was DAC direct from Metrum’s Adagio DAC, which uses an elegant volume control solution by changing the reference voltage of the DAC, so no lost bits ever.
My solution was to use a very high quality solid state unity-gain buffer, which added back all the tonal color, dimension, and solidity that was missing when I was going directly from the DAC to my amps.
brewmasterdon
68 posts
 

My current thoughts on this are to start with a very neutral amp that you like, class A, class D, personally I like the new purifi class D's and generally all of the new class D's but I wouldn't worry about that, it's your hobby( my suggestion), just make sure it is very, very clean and neutral and has a decent Signal to Noise ratio like the MSB, Benchmark, CH Precision products etc. Then, remove the pre-amp at all costs and buy a better dac with all the money that you save and run direct!! I can't state this loudly enough, get that pre amp out of the picture. Then use the digital filters that are available too you to create whatever sound you want, analytical, soft, warm, tubey, crisp, fast, slow, whatever,  heck you change the filters once a week, every other song, whatever you feel like and you can actually create the sound you want instead of relying on a pre amp designer to give you a sound that you get stuck with based on his ideas on negative feed back and how that creates soundstage/ or lack of, what tubes are perfect etc. etc.  When you hear it, you will know, otherwise you'll never get off the merry go round, spend your money on a better amp/dac, ditch the pre and you will be happier in the end, I surely am.

Of course none of this rant is relevant if you still spin those black things
 and actually need  a phono stage.

Don




georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
Of course none of this rant is relevant if you still spin those black things
and actually need a phono stage.
Goes for vinyl too Don.

You can still ditch the active preamp if the phono stage has and enough gain for you >(50db), and then use a good passive preamp.
Many of my customers do this, they say it’s the best they’ve heard their vinyl sound.

Cheers George
brandonhifi's avatar
brandonhifi
69 posts
 

There is no preamp like NO preamp!

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