Help for the need of a preamp

[Dng120]

Hi, I am new to the forum though am very impressed by the quality of members‘ advice and comments. As a newbie I‘d like to seek advice around the need/benefit of adding a preamp to my desktop system.

My current set up is Bluesound NODE > Modius > Tannoy Gold 5 (active speaker) and is wondering if I should add a preamp in between the DAC and speaker? Will I get SQ improvement or other benefits besides volume control and switch functionality? 2nd question: if the answer is positive my choice would be Magnius to complete a stack. Can I go for an unbalanced preamp in this case, e.g. Saga S or Modi as I suspect there will be no audible difference?

Thanks in advance for help.

 

[RickSanchez]

In looking at pre-amps for your setup just focus on features, not SQ. Your DAC has plenty of output (4.0V RMS balanced, 2.0V RMS single-ended) so it has no issues driving sufficient signal to your speakers. If you want switching and volume control — as you mention — then a pre-amp could make sense.

If you’re trying to address specific concerns about SQ my advice would be to spend that money on a measurement mic, then learn how to do measurements in REW. That gives you the ability to adjust your sound — via EQ — to the specifics of your room + your listening position.

 

[radix]

I'd stay all balanced. It's a much better SNR than unbalanced and it avoids any possible ground-loop issues to your active speakers.

Adding a preamp with a good analog volume control can improve the overall SNR of the system. This is because DAC with digital volume control will usually have a fixed noise floor and when you decrease the signal digitally you lower the SNR of the DAC. Using an analog volume control will decrease both the signal and the DAC noise floor. But the devil is in the details and it may be that even the degraded SNR is still perfectly fine for human hearing.

That said, I use an SHD with digital volume control and don't have any issues with noise. A lot of this is likely under human hearing. If you were normally cranking the DAC way down in signal to listen at low volumes then maybe it will matter?

The magnius looks pretty good in Amir's review. I think adding that in for easy switching between headphones and speakers and a nice analog volume control would make sense. As rick pointed out, the features all make sense.

 

[ZolaIII]

Buy bigger and better speakers. That Tannoy sounds a bit bright and of course can't take much bass. Learn to DSP-EQ room correction and get a deacent mic so that you can use it for the purpose. That's the path if you want improvements in sound quality which you will hear.

 

[stemfencer]

I think this needs to be moved out the headphone section