The best preamp is the one that hooks your stuff up to your amp. LOL, I sometimes plug my stuff directly into the power amp. We see that modular setup behind you, I’m gonna mention it every time I see it!
The higher the gain, the better for dynamics and head room coming from a preamp. I use a tubed 6j1 and 6922 SEPP at get 10 volts coming out and at low listening levels it's bliss.
Hey Paul, LOVE watching your videos. Maybe you can do a walk around in the studio and tell us about the speakers, amps and headphones we can see behind you ? We want to know what the PS Audio/Octave Guru is using/listening to everyday.
If you have a consumer electronics power amp with a max input voltage of 0,775V and you have a pre-amp capable of driving a 2V Pro-Audio amp with 100% head room (4V output) and the volume resolution is 1dB, do you then have a little over 2dB steps or nearly 5dB steps in your attenuator for that particular combination? Also when Paul says their input sensitivity is around 1.8V, does he then mean peak value since the standard for professional input sensitivity is 1,227V RMS?
While sensitivity is a consideration, the matching issue most people seem to overlook is impedance matching. I see audiophiles who try to drive a solid state power amp with a relatively low input impedance over long cables with a tube preamp that has a fairly high output impedance, then wonder whey they are getting dull lifeless sound.
A run a tubed preamp with 10 volts out with an output impedance of just under 600ohm, going to two Quad 303 power amps with inputs of 22kohm. The amps input is 0.5v sensitivity which means that I had to attenuate the output RCA of the tubed pre to drive the amps to match.
@@elmeme88 It's really more about the ratio, than the specific numbers. It also depends somewhat on the length and type of cable connecting them. Typically with a unbalanced signal, you want the input impedance of the amp to be at least 10X the output impedance of the preamp.
@@JoseMorales-kr2ed Shouldn't be a problem. Even with the two amps connected in parallel, the input impedance is still plenty high enough. You probably find that you can only use the first part of the rotation of the volume control however. That's not an uncommon problem with vintage British gear, where the preamps typically had little or no gain, while the power amps had high sensitivity.
@@gotham61 That's right. However I added the best resistors I could find and attenuated the output to a point that I can now use the full range of the volume pot to "typical" common levels. At 9 o'clock I have great resolution and dynamics - and plenty of volume left. Where I sit, 4 metres away from the speakers I have measured 88dB nominal. My speakers are 86-83 dB in sensitivity. I made my own interconnects out of silver, just like Mr Paul McGowan has suggested here in some videos (a made them .5 metres in length) and my setup sounds blissful.
Bill I have to agree. I like my PS Audio S300 amp. It WAS paired with my Chi-Fi Gustard X20 pro DAC/ PREamp. Often i would have to Jump to the remote when some cuts came on as a result of the gain on the AMP. Recently got the Audio -GD HE1 Preamp and the Gustard is in DAC only mode. Then I went back to my Old Audio GD SA 300 Power Amp and I now have awesome control over volume . The Gain on the pre sound like half increments. The whole setup is less aggressive. I still like my PS Audio AMP but it is now on my bedroom system with 6 Om speakers they seem to play better together.
The vast majority of preamps ever made can deliver more than enough signal voltage to drive the vast majority of power amps ever made well into their clipping range. I would look at the preamp's noise figures.
of the few examples of preamps I have, a few of them could do close to 10 volts before any sort of distortion started happening. Only a cheap mid 80s Sansui preamp I have started to give poor quality above about the 2 volt range. And even that is usually able to give enough signal to most any power amp I have had come through here (though not the best quality signal).
30dB gain yields 1 volt input turning into 31.6 volts output. Sounds like dB is approx. equal to gain factor but it’s not. It’s logarithmic. 20dB gain yields 1 volt input turning into 10 volts output and 40dB gain yields 1 volt turning into 100 volts output.
Stylus Gauges… I own three including a similar one to what Paul was displaying. Believe it or not a simple seesaw plastic stylus gauge with plastic weights on one side and the stylus rests on the other side that was included with the original Acoustic Research Turntable works the best for me out of all of the three that I own. Strange but true.
@@wishusknight3009 that’s exactly what I did. I was having problems with a Panasonic string gauge stylus force measuring unit. It never gave me the same result twice in a row. Using this super inexpensive mechanical fulcrum unit Is it always the same measurement. I’ve measured it against known brass weights that I have as well and it always balances with the plastic unit
Does the DAC output impedance have to be a certain impedance ratio to the input impedance of the Pre Amp? ?? either 10 x bigger or smalled than the input impedance of the Pre Amp ?
Hi paul!! My av reciver analog input is 150mv 50k-ohms at 100db. The output is rated 150mv at 1k-ohms. My question is what output voltage i need on the preamplifier side? Thanks Asaf
I recently came into possession of a NAD 216THX power amp. I have it connected to a pair of Tannoy system 600s. I have an output going straight out of my audio interface into the amp, but this means I end up with a very low output from the interface of -30db. What do you recommend I do, in terms of pre-amp or attenuators?
My preamp is 10db gain and power amp is 26db. Speakers are 90db/w. And its too much, specially if DAC output is above 2V, there are many that have 3V and they all say "its standard gain, should work fine". I have to attenuate in Roon and HQPlayer. Tried RCA attenuators but they screwed up the sound. May power amp manufacturers don't even specify input sensitivity. And pre/power amp gain are mostly in that range - don't know how manufacturers expect us to match the components with such a high gain! Specially PS Audio stuff, 30db is ludicrous!
In what way did they screw up the sound may I ask? I attenuated my preamp from the output of the RCA of the preamp with some Shinko Tantalum resistors. 560ohm signal and 33ohm to ground in my example to give me .5v out straight to my amps. I was expecting a dull effect, perhaps less focus but in the end it worked absolutely brilliantly for me. No loss of signal or any degradation, in fact - almost total transparency relatively speaking. No resistors on interconnects.
@@JoseMorales-kr2ed I used Rothwell -10db RCA attenuators. Had 2 DACs connected, one with attenuators. I could cleary hear lack of low end and body on mids. When I removed attenuators, tried again A/B test (easy to do with Roon and play on both at same time, then switch input on preamp), sound improved and i could hear again low end and body.
@@hudo Sorry to hear this was the result of the Rothwell attenuators. In fact, I studied these before making the decision in making the attenuators myself. Like I mentioned before - I expected bad results. Perhaps you could try what I did, just for curiosity. Thanks for the feedback.
So if the amp has more then enough wattage, would it be the pre-amp that creates the headroom and dynamic range since it's there the small changes in voltage create the big dynamics in the amplifier? also don't they have to match impedance wise as well?
Amplifiers don't make impedance, speakers do. Think of the system like a dam, with the amp providing the lake of water and the speakers being the dam that restricts the output flow (wattage). The lower the impedance, the more power is allowed to flow out and increases the more power is required to make it (like replenishing the lake). Which also increases the amount of strain put on every part of that. Dynamic range depends on both the amp and the pre-amp, specifically thier internal components. If one filters the other, the rest of the question becomes indifferent because some of the range will have been canceled. Assuming this doesn't happen (ideally), the pre-amp and amp work just like a stereo's equalizer and volume knob do in effect, altering the sound and amplifying it. The "headroom" voltage from the pre-amp allows for the "volume knob" to be turned up further than you'd have been able to with a lower input wattage.
I use a passive preamp and I'm trying to get used with my brand new Parasound active preamp. Even with only 2v from my sources, it seems the passive preamp has cleaner path than the other. I can get all the juice from my amps with it, better than with the active one (Zpre V3 3,5v).
How to match my afteramplifier input to amplifier ? We all know about the preamps , but no one , NO ONE talks about afteramps . This is something , right ?
Power amplifier is the word! Pre-amplifier receive the input signal and adjust the volume of it! Normally the pre-amplifier reduce the signal, because the maximum volume of input source is maximum level you get from power amplifier from that source. If you have a fixed and variable signal, you don’t want to hook up the fixed signal to the power amplifier, as you can not adjust the volume.
Please forgive me if this is been answered somewhere else and I can't find it Question If i have a 7-8 foot run between my source and my speaker, where do I put my amplifier closer to the speaker or closer to the source? Do I use longer speaker cable or longer preamp to amplifier cable?
I would have the amp + source closer, your speaker cable run is a common distance. A cheap tweak, move the electronics out and off to one side if possible, let those speakers breathe unobstructed
@@tothemax324 I didn't explain it well. My electronics are to the rear side. My question is with the electronics away from the speaker do I put the amplifier near the speaker with a short cable and a longer cable from the preAmp or a short preamp cable with the power amp near the electronics and a longer power amp cable to the speaker. Note I have bye amp with two speaker cables
I don't know, but I would prefer to keep my CD player and record player, whatever source components, near my preamp (in the same rack), and with short cables, and let the preamp to amp cables be longer because my amp lives on the floor, well, on a stand on the floor. In my case the difference is 1 meter as opposed to 2, so it likely doesn't matter for me.
Can a please have your address? I'm going to buy the house nextdoor so I can have you as my nextdoor neighbor. I'd install that new water heater you want if you'd just show me how to connect my new pre-amp to my new (non-integrated) amp. You've done it a hundred times, and I've installed a hundred heaters, so, that seems fair to me... Or a detailed video would be OK too.. I've got a (sorry) Emo PT-1 and a BasX A2. All I want is to stream music from my phone. Know anyone else that could help me? I'd fix their faucets.
You aren't going to drive your car at top speed, either. Probably never. Definitely not every time you use it. You still want that power available when you are getting on the interstate or passing some slow poke on a two lane road. The amp that doesn't operate continuously at anything near full power will have less distortion. Full power is usually the point the amp reaches 1% distortion. Less distortion is a good thing. Also, you have plenty of power at the ready should a loud transient be in your music, or if a loud section of music should come up like frequently happens in Classical music. Sometimes you are listening to the quiet sections and then the loud part comes along and blows you out of your seat. You need that headroom so you don't run out of power and clip the loud sounds. That's a really simple explanation. I don't know if you would prefer something more technical, but that's what I have.
