Impeccable timing. Had long meant to pull my old Rega Cursa pre out of of the chain - as my Shanling tube power amp has adjustable volume. Mac Air, DDC, I2S to Pegasus to Shanling to MG 1.7s. Finally got to it last night and after a disappointing evening have put it back as it was. What I heard immediately and unmistakingly: the 'sidewise spread' of the sound narrowed entirely between the speakers. I didn't notice anything front to back but in truth the impact of the narrower soundstage was enough that it wasn't even on my radar. Secondly, the detail down to quiet was gone. Actually gone. As best as I can figure - detail was less overall and just highly noticeable when a note or voice was tailing off to silence. The soundfloor was dark and noiseless. Some of my very well recorded/produced pieces still sounded impactful. Sharper even. But no sparkle. Kind of unremarkable. Not what I expected at all. I figured pulling the pre out if anything would allow more detail to come through, esp as the Rega is older and not state of the art by any means. Contrast to how my system sounds with it in...? Well recorded music is simply astonishing. Seal. Rhianna. Adele. Isaak. New Shins. Many others. Average music doesn't get as much play as in comparison sounds 'nice' but not remarkable. Poorly recorded music sound terrible. So my system is clearly rewarding tracks and mixes that are well laid down - to the extremes.
No preamp in system
I want to point out how the perception of our equipment changes over time. I’m getting so use to the sound of my system without a preamp (which is out for repair) to the point that I’m accepting it as good sound. It reveals something about our hobby. When we get new equipment we often say “let it break in.” And lo and behold, it sounds much better over time. Is it that were really fooling ourselves, and that it’s simply a matter of us getting use to it?
Just food for thought.
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A good preamp is far better then without one especially if it has a substantial power supplies for dynamics soundstage stability and imaging under Loud dynamic swings ,also having a very good resistive ladder volume control and relays night and day better then those low quality Alps,or Bourn volume pots for low level detail and micro dynamics . There are no short cuts to getting the most out of your Audio system. |
@rvpiano ...I've been running 'pre-less' for years running sources to a matrix that loops in a ss 32 band eq with a parametric bands....does the room eq to flat. |
- 31 posts total