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Tell me your best preamp

Can we expand the preAmp topic, with more of a future tilt?

Tell me your best preamp... of the future

If my Rotel ever dies... I am already planning for a future audio/video system based on a modular chassis with plug-in A/V cards.
 
I use a Palmer Monicon. It offers both balanced and unbalanced IO, the knob feels pleasant and it is well built. The mute and mono functions are also quite convenient.
Purchased and returned. Two of the bottom screw heads were loose in the packaging, must have been so tight they came off during shipping. That, and the fact that I have come to learn I want a stepped relay attenuator to ensure the balance to speakers is spot on!
 
I don't actually understand the idea that some people claimed "this preamp sound good, that preamp sound not good" (some preamp cost dozen of thousands)

I thought the preamp solely purpose is to swich beetween source and changing signal level, while retaining exact sound from source. If it can't even do those things, then what's the point of having a separate preamp
 
Khozmo passive preamp with stepped attenuator. Various modes available.


pre2.jpg
 
Khozmo passive preamp with stepped attenuator. Various modes available.


pre2.jpg
A few years back I bought a British made transformer based passive preamp, very expensive (£2000). I hooked it up to my system, and Whoa, beautiful clear sound greater treble detail then what I was used to.. Could not have been more please with this purchase. Long term, I found that the tonal balance had shifted to the mid-highs at the expense of the very important low-mids. No more passive preamps for me. There are more technical explanation on the subject on the PS audio website, they make both active and passive preamps, they seem to agree with my findings.
 
A few years back I bought a British made transformer based passive preamp, very expensive (£2000). I hooked it up to my system, and Whoa, beautiful clear sound greater treble detail then what I was used to.. Could not have been more please with this purchase. Long term, I found that the tonal balance had shifted to the mid-highs at the expense of the very important low-mids. No more passive preamps for me. There are more technical explanation on the subject on the PS audio website, they make both active and passive preamps, they seem to agree with my findings.
The problem with passive preamps is that they can be heavily dependent on the source impedance of the device feeding them, the interconnect between source and preamp (and interconnect between preamp ad power amp), and finally the input impedance and capacitance of the power amp.

There are to many variables for my liking - but they do seem to work well for a lot of people.

The Khozmo above has a stepped attenuator which is slightly better than using a single pot, as many passives do.

Transformer based are the best and I'm not quite sure why you had the experience you did with yours, as they are usually quite neutral.
 
For several years I’m using an “old” AVM Evolution V3 with build-in MM-module. Lots of line inputs and double XLR outputs. Very satisfied with it.

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Why is it called a preamplifier if there are no amplifying devices in it? Attenuator would be a better choice of word for it.
Well -- anything installed before an amplifier could be argued (grammatically/syntactically) to be a preamplifier, no matter what it does (or what it doesn't), given the meaning of the prefix pre.
We can talk about pre-breakfast exercise, e.g., which presumably doesn't include eating.

This being "said" (written :cool:), I actually tend to agree and indeed I typically refer to my own (ahem) passive preamp as an attenuator and source selector.

Amusingly enough, and on topic for this thread, I was just spewing some babble about my choice of preamplification device(s) in another thread. :)

 
A preamp might be needed if the system just doesen't have enough gain. One possibility is a low gain amplifier. Some of the new amplifiers have very low gain in order to increase their measured SINAD. Another scenario is if room correction is in use with a lot of volume boost. In order to avoid digital clipping the gain is turned down. It has to be made up after conversion to analogue.
 
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Well -- anything installed before an amplifier could be argued (grammatically/syntactically) to be a preamplifier, no matter what it does (or what it doesn't), given the meaning of the prefix pre.
We can talk about pre-breakfast exercise, e.g., which presumably doesn't include eating.

This being "said" (written :cool:), I actually tend to agree and indeed I typically refer to my own (ahem) passive preamp as an attenuator and source selector.

Amusingly enough, and on topic for this thread, I was just spewing some babble about my choice of preamplification device(s) in another thread. :)

I 'spoze.
 
Along with cheap Class D monoblock amps, my number one audio wish is for a new, high value preamp to be offered that has either built-in phono or a slot for a phono card to be added. I kind of can't believe that Schiit hasn't gone there, with all the new products they continue to develop. I've almost bought their Saga S a bunch of times, but keep waiting to see if they will debut one with phono capability.

Is there any currently made full-size stereo preamp below $500 that has a phono pre?

(I keep my old NAD 1020 and Nikko Beta 20 units around to use when I need this in one of my setups, but they have not been restored and I'm sure the sound quality takes a bit of a hit from the vintage kit being in the chain.)
 
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(I keep my old NAD 1020 and Nikko Beta 20 units around to use when I need this in one of my setups, but they have not been restored and I'm sure the sound quality takes a bit of a hit from the vintage kit being in the chain.)
It might in terms of measured performance, but I'd bet that it doesn't diminish what you can actually hear in any way. The only exception to that might be noise from a leaky capacitor or a dirty volume pot, but if you don't hear noise when there is no signal, you probably aren't giving up anything that would be really audible. The dirty volume pots respond favorably to Deoxit products.

If you do have noise, it may be from unbalanced connections, too. Rearranging and shortening cables can often help with that. One advantage to more recent preamps is that they often have balanced inputs and outputs.

That is, of course, assuming the gain staging is done correctly and you aren't clipping your older preamps. That's probably not likely at all--older preamps aren't any less powerful than new ones, and in most cases they will drive the line-level audio to a higher voltage than the amp requires.

Rick "usually has to clean the pots in older stuff, but rarely finds bad caps" Denney
 
Superphon Revelation Dual Mono, if old school counts.

Anybody on the forum old enough to remember this one? I got mine 1984 I believe.

TON of gain, but one downside was the dual volume controls made it hard to balance at low listening levels.

I had it until a couple years ago, running fine with capacitor replacement maybe 10 or so years ago, but just sitting for a long time. I’m all digital on Roon platform now, so would likely never use again. I did give it a last “spin” before departing and still sounded pretty darn good.
 
...but wanted the option to add an analog input (for a tuner) with XLR out...
Have you sourced an FM Tuner with XLR outs, yet? I'd like to know, if such a thing really exists anymore.

My Rotel pre/Proc has RCA inputs labelled as "Tuner" but even a decent RCA'd (SE) tuner - at a reasonable price - does not seem to exist: Although, we know that most FM tuners lack creds as audiophile quality, anymore.
 
Have you sourced an FM Tuner with XLR outs, yet? I'd like to know, if such a thing really exists anymore.

My Rotel pre/Proc has RCA inputs labelled as "Tuner" but even a decent RCA'd (SE) tuner - at a reasonable price - does not seem to exist: Although, we know that most FM tuners lack creds as audiophile quality, anymore.
There are lots of decent older tuners. The thing is, FM radio is really limited by its stereo separation and high frequency roll off. But it’s even more limited by the loudness-war processing of radio broadcasters. Even the best of them will feature noise pumping and false stereo. I still like it, but it’s not like it challenges the electronics.

Where tuner quality matters is in weak signal areas, but that’s much more about being a radio than being an audio component. Old stuff in good repair is a decent choice.

The Sony XDR-F1HD used DSP in the tuner and probably has the best tuning section of any tuner ever made. But it needs mods in the audio section to flatten frequency response and it suffers also from heat stress. There’s a guy that modifies these but his lead time is endless and he is rarely accepting work. But that’s the only “modern” tuner I’d accept as an improvement over analog tuners of the past.

I have a tuner from SAE (a T102), a Proton 440, and my current user, a Carver TX-11a. All of these are as good as FM radio in strong signal areas. The Carver has the best weak-signal tuner of these (and it’s really quite good), but the Proton is decent and often under a hundred bucks. The SAE is excellent all around but pretty old-school with its red LED displays.

The really superb tuners of the past, like the Kenwood L07T, still fetch real money. The ones I mentioned rarely exceed a couple of hundred.

Rick “should learn how to upgrade the Sony himself” Denney
 
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Have you sourced an FM Tuner with XLR outs, yet? I'd like to know, if such a thing really exists anymore.

My Rotel pre/Proc has RCA inputs labelled as "Tuner" but even a decent RCA'd (SE) tuner - at a reasonable price - does not seem to exist: Although, we know that most FM tuners lack creds as audiophile quality, anymore.
Oh sorry, I meant XLR out from the preamp, not the tuner. Haven't seen that before.
 
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