The future of preamps

@ Georgelofi, Hi, I have never used passive preamp produts, so I cannot comment on them, However, I have never heard a active preamp to better a high quality,top sounding source direct connected to a amplifier!, I also agree, If the source can drive the amp to full out-put., there is very few sources that you can match the out-put to the in-put of the amp, an example of what I am saying is this, My amp is 3.58 volts to drive to potentual power, volume to the speakers, A source that out-puts 2.5 volts sounds great, But will not drive the amp to full power, Then on the flip side of useing a preamp, The statement Almarg said quote- "The 32 volts could be 1000 volts and you still would not have a problem". Yes I would!, I do not want a volume control to fully drive my amp on a clock value starting at 6am going to 3pm being the preamps full out-put, and making my amp fully driven at 8am!!!, That is not what I want to do!, I understand the concept of not putting the preamp in a bind for better sound quality, I once had a source back in 1997 that was direct to amp, the out-put volts was 3 volts, Then I had a Krell FPB 200, The in-put sensativity was 2.97,, This was perfect for me, then to top that off, I had some horn speakers that did 101 sensativity, man-o-man was that a great sound, that system was stolen from me by ex-wife when I was out of town!, I told you this because, I fully agree with the #2 statement you provided in your last post!, I also cannot get over the fact that the signal goes thru another circuit board before it gets to the amp!, It's funny how so many preamp makers are doing shortest path available for the signal inside their preamps,LOL!, mmmm, I wonder why?., regardless, I am willing to go and hear what the best available preamps can do these days, I traveled half the u.s.a. before in the late 90s giving seminairs on resonance control tunning and listening to all under the sun cost no object everything!, Preamps have never impressed me, now that so much time has gone by, I will see if they can match source direct connected to amps. cheers George.

Grannyring,
That was probably the most logically expressed post on this often repeated topic as I've ever read. You sum it up accurately as well as beautifully. Folks, go with what sounds best to you.

I didn't know you had experienced the Light speed on three separate occasions. You certainty believe in thorough scrutiny and a fair shake.
Charles,

Almarg said quote- "The 32 volts could be 1000 volts and you still would not have a problem". Yes I would!, I do not want a volume control to fully drive my amp on a clock value starting at 6am going to 3pm being the preamps full out-put, and making my amp fully driven at 8am!!!, That is not what I want to do!

Audiolabyrinth, it sounds from this post that you do not understand the difference between output capability and gain.

The two are different. In this case, the MP-1 can make about 32 volts. But it needs a lot of input to do that, as it does not have all that much gain and no source I can think of has that sort of output. Normally, it would be making much much less than that, not even a volt most of the time (signal and volume control dependent).

So output level is what it can achieve, gain is how much signal it will need to get there. A lot of gain, not much signal, not much gain and it will need a lot of input.

In your case, it would work out great as your amps have low gain also. Essentially, it would be impossible to cause the preamp to distort on your system. In fact its distortion would be so low that it would be very difficult to measure. Its that latter aspect which is why you want the high output ability- the more it has, the less distortion it is going to make when driving an amplifier.

Audiolabyrinth: An amp that is 3.58v to get it to give full output, is very unusual. Most amps are around 1.5v-2v in to get full output. In this case it could be likely you may need an active preamp.
I would still do the "Bolero Test" as it still comes down to if your source can give the amp enough volts to get to a decent loud level on whatever speaker you have, and if they are efficient enough you still may not need an active preamp.

Cheers George

Arthur is a man with opinions like all of us. It is strange all of the products he says are the best of the best are Coincident. Is this just a coincidence for Coincident? Highly unlikely in all honesty folks. At the minimum, it simply reflects his sole experience and preferences. At minimum.

With the WWW, anybody can be a professional reviewer so caveat emptor. People will naturally gravitate to reviewers that prefer their products for purchase decision reinforcement and info.