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Recommend me the best stereo amp under $1000?

dlaloum

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The preamp should be a pass through (unless you have bass/treble and/or other processing such as RoomEQ..).... best measure would be SINAD - ie: how clean and undistorted the sound passes through.

There can be issues with impedance matching of preamps and poweramps - but I think those have been resolved for years - fairly unusual to come across them with any recent gear.

Power amps on the other hand can sound quite different one to the other - primarily when handling speakers that are outside their rated range (very low impedances) - lots of amplifiers "misbehave" when powering speaker impedances below 4 ohm....

Most speakers don't go so low on impedance - but some of the very best speakers... more "exotic" examples - do.

My Gallo Ref 3.2's go down to 1.6 ohm on the tweeter, and around 3 ohm on the woofer.

When asked to power such speakers, amps that can't provide the necessary current or go unstable at that impedance - will cause various sometimes frequency dependent distortions... they will have a "sound".

When amps are run within their rated capabilities - they don't have a sound. (repeated "blind" tests have shown this!)

But as soon as you own a set of speakers that stresses amps - you will start noticing how different amps can sound..

The easy solution - get an amp rated for 2 ohm, or at the very least rated to stable into 2 ohm loads.

Best would be an amp that is fully specified into 2 ohm or lower loads - and which doubles its output in watts, as the impedance halves. - A "perfect" amp would put out double the W into 4 ohm that it does at 8 ohms and would double again into 2 ohms.

Very good amps will go 1.7x into 4ohms and then a further 1.5x into 2 ohms

My Crown amps go 440W 8ohms, 775W 4 ohms and 1200W 2 ohms.... they are way over the top for the level of power I use - I normally use no more than 4W - but running them "stress free" means they don't "misbehave" and they act as a "straight wire with gain" - and also I have enormous amounts of headroom - the system is (in theory) capable of 110db peaks... but I have never seen the LED Meters on the amps rise to 10W let alone go any further.

In todays marketplace - I expect a preamp (or prepro, or AV Receiver...) - to achieve a SINAD of at least 90db... preferably in the mid 90's or higher.

I would like to see similar performance from the power amp - but I know that my own amps only achieve SINAD in the mid 70's... I have also Quad 606 power amps that probably do a bit better (mid 80's?) - but the sound is very clean in my system... and getting power amps that both sound good with my speakers, and are within my budget is .. difficult. The Benchmark AHB2 has great potential, as do some of the latest Class D amps - but right now, I am enormously satisfied with my systems sound... Dirac has done magic here! and I do not feel the need to upgrade.
 

ahofer

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I could reply exactly the same, except who the heck is Poe.
So, what preamp is recommended for March power amps?
And who can clarify what I read about the weight of pre/amp in the quality of the final sound.

Unless it is a topic about one's fantasies with trolls, laws and psychological analysis.
Stick around and read some more. Most people aren’t using a preamp at all, and you may notice that March sells a DAC with variable output. I have a March amp driven by an RME DAC.

A preamp can only degrade sound further (more noise, more potential frequency non-linearity) unless it fixes an impedance matching problem (ie one of the other components is flawed). Fancy preamps are mostly for audiophiles with too much imagination and disposable funds. For these reasons you don’t see much preamp talk around here.

Poe’s Law is only a google search away.
 

Chrise36

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A preamp can only degrade sound further (more noise, more potential frequency non-linearity) unless it fixes an impedance matching problem (ie one of the other components is flawed). Fancy preamps are mostly for audiophiles with too much imagination and disposable funds. For these reasons you don’t see much preamp talk around here.
Technically the best setup is to have the DAC at full output for lowest possible IMD and use the cleanest pre for volume control etc. Not that it would be audible though.
 

ahofer

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Technically the best setup is to have the DAC at full output for lowest possible IMD and use the cleanest pre for volume control etc. Not that it would be audible though.
Depends how volume is handled in the DAC. There are some threads on that here, including using Roon’s volume Control.

Unless you have figured out reverse entropy, adding components is only going to degrade the signal.
 
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ex audiophile

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Technically the best setup is to have the DAC at full output for lowest possible IMD and use the cleanest pre for volume control etc. Not that it would be audible though.
Agreed, e.g. DAC3B - LA4 - AHB2 is pristine. But then there's that pesky bass management and room correction thing.
 

Chrise36

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Depends how volume is handled in the DAC. There are some threads on that here, including using Roon’s volume Control.

Unless you have figured out reverse entropy, adding components is only going to degrade the signal.
John Yang confirmed this and Amir has tested this and IMD was worse with DAC only vs with a pre. A pre with 120 sinad will add almost nothing and you have extra gain when the recording is very low volume from a practical side. A SABAJ a10h is ideal for this and pretty inexpensive IMHO unless you have analog source.
 
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dlaloum

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Stick around and read some more. Most people aren’t using a preamp at all, and you may notice that March sells a DAC with variable output. I have a March amp driven by an RME DAC.

A preamp can only degrade sound further (more noise, more potential frequency non-linearity) unless it fixes an impedance matching problem (ie one of the other components is flawed). Fancy preamps are mostly for audiophiles with too much imagination and disposable funds. For these reasons you don’t see much preamp talk around here.

Poe’s Law is only a google search away.
All that you are saying, is that the dac has a built in preamp... the dac IS the preamp.

There is always a preamp, otherwise you have no way of controlling volume.
 

ahofer

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All that you are saying, is that the dac has a built in preamp... the dac IS the preamp.

There is always a preamp, otherwise you have no way of controlling volume.
Passive or active, yes. But the question implied a separate, dedicated component, which is entirely unnecessary.
 

dlaloum

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Passive or active, yes. But the question implied a separate, dedicated component, which is entirely unnecessary.
Well yes - if you opt for an integrated component, then you do not require a seperate component to take on that function...
 
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