2. amps-preamps
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Preamps can color sound considerably. Surprising?

Had the pleasure of listening to 4 hi end preamplifiers this weekend. And each preamp sounded very nice. But they were different. Each preamplifier has different circuitry and within the frequency spectrum there was more vibrancy in some areas versus other areas. Amplifiers are the same way.

It takes a while to appreciate sound differences between preamplifiers. And then you got the issue of Breakin which further changes the color.

clearly designers are playing around with all the internal circuitry in a manner that hopefully will be appealing. Clearly, these units do not get out of the way when it comes to moving a signal through the box.

I think solid state is more susceptible to coloring versus tubes. Tubes color sound as well.

It's all about marketing different ways to color Music. This isn't necessarily bad but it's never really talked about this way.

 

 

 

jumia
asvjerry's avatar
asvjerry
4,263 posts
 

Do pre-'s effect the final product?  Yup.

That's why I don't have one anymore in-line.  Available, yes.  Optional, sure.

Pre- and post-eq instead?  Yup, and happy about it.

More noise from the equipment fans than the system itself.  Not 'black', but dark enough 'gray' to suffice....

rolox
180 posts
 

Absolute neutrality shouldn't be the goal (and is unattainable) Musical enjoyment is what we are after - if you can still recognize the voice of your favorite soprano / tenor, it's all good.

wolf_garcia
6,595 posts
 

Those engineers operating the studio gear are putting that sacred "absolute sound" through miles of wires, pan pots, addled brains, unclean tape heads, unclean bald heads, digital manipulation, badly tuned pianos, and personal tastes just like the home hifi geek. The only way around it is to hire musicians to form a circle around you while you lie on the floor after recently having cleaned your ears. Preamps sound however the designer wanted them to so it's up to you to decide what sonic manipulation you prefer. If you're lucky you can enjoy music...or spoken word...or dump trucks backing up...lucky you.

holmz's avatar
holmz
2,328 posts
 

Absolute neutrality shouldn't be the goal (and is unattainable) Musical enjoyment is what we are after - if you can still recognize the voice of your favorite soprano / tenor, it's all good.

OK, I guess for a “stereo” I agree.

But HiFi sort of had “fidelity” buried in there, so that sort of has the idea of neutrality associated with it.

audioman58's avatar
audioman58
3,833 posts
 

Every component colors the sound to some extent , depending how you are trying to voice your  system , from tubes, to cables, even front  end phono cartridges, to dacs , every designer of a amplifiers, preamps hav3 their own design philosophy of what they think is correct ,as well as Loudspeakers, You decide exactly what is correct for your Audio system. 

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