Changed preamps. Seems like less power now?


I recently changed my preamp from a Rotel 1070 to an Anthem TLP-1, and have noticed that my system seems to have less power. I have to really push up the volumn to get any decent high levels, where is with the other preamp, it got very loud easily. Does a preamp effect the output of the power amp. I don't know if I should change it back out, or maybe go with a higher powered amp. I run Thiel CS.5, and they seem to be hard to drive compared to some other speakers I have owned. Thanks for any help
jeffo19
Different preamps provide different amounts of gain. Some may provide only say 6 db. of gain, some as much as 26 db. or more. Depends on the design of the preamp. This variance definitely means there is some degree of component matching required. However, just because one preamp requires more rotation of the volume knob than another may mean nothing other than the taper of the volume control is diffferent. I believe your Anthem works in .5 db increments, so that may mean you've really got to rotate it if your your amp is of a lower gain design and/or your speakers are inefficent. When you crank it up, is it sufficiently loud for you? If it is, don't worry. It's generally worse to have a preamp with too much gain as your volume adjustment is imprecise and it may affect the signal to noise ratio adversely.
The previous preamp was very sensitive, but also would only be at say 10:00 O'clock position at a given loudness, while the other one has to go to 2:00. I am thinking that maybe I should match my components, and use an Anthem power amp. Wheather or not that will make a difference or not, I don't know.
I have an Anthem AVM-30 in my HT system and as Photon notes it does have .5 db increments, which means several clicks on the remote to get a significant volume change. This is nice if you're looking for subtlety but it does seem like you're really turning it up to get loud, and the volume control is a continuous type which also exaggerates this effect. It does look like that model doesn't have a lot of gain but as everyone says, if you can get it loud enough and it's still quiet and sounds good then you're fine.

Oh, and mine has an adjustable "power on" gain level (mines set around -30db) this might help get you started closer to your normal listening level.
Yeah. I like that feature. I did not know it was adjustable. Still going through the manual. The Volume range on this shows -80dB to +8.0 Odd. -30 is quite low, and I have to bring it up to -15 for decent volumn, and that's with a 130W power amp. The -80 to -50 range almost seems inaudible to me. I use to have an Arcam that allowed you to change the increments, but I don't think this has that option.
Adjustable increments seems like a nice feature, haven't seen it in the Anthems. You may have adjustable input levels which will also affect your output, but it's more important to level match between inputs (if your signal's good you might use the tuner as a reference).

I would be worried if "0" wasn't loud - near as loud as you ever listen (that doesn't mean your system can handle "0", you be the judge of that.) I think you can expect the preamp to be within its capabilities at 0 (unless your input is very high which it doesn't sound like it is.) I regularly listen between -20 & -10, occasionally louder, rarely I've hit 0 and above (and when I do I'm not worried about my preamp).