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How much dose preamp matter?

D

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Hallo, my father recently bought a primare a32 amplifier and is searching now for an preamp to it.

We asked around what would be best and got 3 answers, the original preamp bundled with our amplifier, Vincent pre amp and Yamaha wxc-50.

Since all these products have different price tags. My question is. How much do a good pre amp cost and how to match one with my father's amplifer?
 

Blumlein 88

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You'll want one with low output impedance as the amp has a little lower input impedance than usual. Not hard to find this. You don't need too much gain from it. The big thing is probably features. The Primare pre has lots of useful capabilities and features. You could get a nice sounding pre for less money, but not with all those handy features. So is the convenience of all the inputs, the streaming and all of that important to your father? I'd want at least a pre with xlr connections since the amp has them.
 

andreasmaaan

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What do you want your preamp to do? Or in other words, what will be connected to it upstream and how will you use it?
 
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D

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You'll want one with low output impedance as the amp has a little lower input impedance than usual. Not hard to find this. You don't need too much gain from it. The big thing is probably features. The Primare pre has lots of useful capabilities and features. You could get a nice sounding pre for less money, but not with all those handy features. So is the convenience of all the inputs, the streaming and all of that important to your father? I'd want at least a pre with xlr connections since the amp has them.

The features meaning has a lot to do with the price. We buy mostly our products second hand to get the best price/performance ratio. Currently he is using a Squeezbox Touch to listen to internat radio and stream music from his NAS, if possible it could be cool to connect the preamp to an receiver so the rear speakers are driven from the amplifier. Thats his favorite features.
 
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D

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Or a DAC with volume control if analogue inputs are unnecessary? That is what I did to replace an older pre amp with losts of analogue inputs but no digital ones.

Will these volume controls be as good as in a pre amp? We tried to use volume control in our squeezbox Touch and the sound quality dropped significantly as soon as we drop the volume form 100, same experience happen to me with KTB and RPi.
 
OP
D

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What do you want your preamp to do? Or in other words, what will be connected to it upstream and how will you use it?

Controlling the Volume, begin able to connect it to a receiver and using it with Squeezbox touch. If there are any cheap and good preamps with a DAC that would be awesome but again the price/performance ration depends if its that much needed.
 

Daverz

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I would suggest a USB DAC with volume control and XLR output. You should also install EDO on the Touch.
 

Willem

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But if you are not using analogue sources you do not even need a pre amp. You can use a DAC with its own volume control, or use an external volume control like the now discontinued Emotiva Control Freak.
 

Calexico

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I think a preamp is needed to switch sources and to control volume and eventually to impedance match between source and amp.
Aso it can have riaa for vinyl.
Some pre amp are designed to color the sound a little.
You could try a tube preamp. Some likes what it does to the sound.
If no need i guess all dac have aready kind of preamp.
You could try passive pre amp (a pot) if you need to adjust volume outside the dac but i don't know if it can lead to impedance problems.
 

Vapor9

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I recently tried plugging my Pro-Ject s2 directly into my Peachtree Audi 220 amp and was shocked at how flat and one dimensional the sound became. I just lost all of the illusion. After doing this, I realized how important the preamp is so I bought a used Wyred4Sound STP-SE. I know some people will argue that a preamp is just adding coloration, but I disagree. I think the way a preamp handles impedance is what makes the difference. Of course, I can see the difference may be less (or more) noticeable of some systems with better matching (?) impedance numbers.
 

andreasmaaan

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I recently tried plugging my Pro-Ject s2 directly into my Peachtree Audi 220 amp and was shocked at how flat and one dimensional the sound became. I just lost all of the illusion. After doing this, I realized how important the preamp is so I bought a used Wyred4Sound STP-SE. I know some people will argue that a preamp is just adding coloration, but I disagree. I think the way a preamp handles impedance is what makes the difference. Of course, I can see the difference may be less (or more) noticeable of some systems with better matching (?) impedance numbers.

The Peachtree 220 has an input impedance of 50kOhm (single-ended) or 100kOhm (balanced). The Wired4Sound STP-SE has an input impedance of 60kOhm (single-ended).

Assuming the specs are correct, there is next to zero chance that any differences you heard had anything to do with impedance issues.
 

orangejello

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Very strange. The output impedance of the s2 is very low and the input impedance of the Peachtree is 100kOhms. So impedance matching should not be a problem at all. Something else is going on?
 

andreasmaaan

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Very strange. The output impedance of the s2 is very low and the input impedance of the Peachtree is 100kOhms. So impedance matching should not be a problem at all. Something else is going on?

I couldn't find a spec for the output impedance of the S2 - do you have a link?

And the Peachtree is 50kOhm on the single-ended inputs, which is what the S2 would have to connect to as it has only single-ended outputs.
 

Vapor9

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Interesting. I've been very interested in this subject since I initially thought I could eliminate my preamp, but there is no way I could do that after hearing the difference. By the way, I'm using balanced connectors. Before getting the STP I was using a Parasound P3 which is certainly a nice preamp, but the STP definitely took everything up a notch.
 

andreasmaaan

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Interesting. I've been very interested in this subject since I initially thought I could eliminate my preamp, but there is no way I could do that after hearing the difference. By the way, I'm using balanced connectors. Before getting the STP I was using a Parasound P3 which is certainly a nice preamp, but the STP definitely took everything up a notch.

Which S2 is it exactly? On the Pro-Ject website it appears to have only single-ended outputs.
 

Daverz

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This is why I've been keeping an eye on the new Schiit Freya S: 0 dB gain buffered balanced pre-amp with a stepped attenuator volume control. There is a 12 dB gain setting if you need it.
 
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