High end stereo preamps? Worth it?

But, there aren’t many folks (in a blindfolded test) who’d take a 0.001THD amp over, say, a Lamm SET With much higher THD numbers.

Where if you can post the link, was this blind test and with how many conducted and printed up?

Cheers George

Benchmark LA4 .

@georgehifi,

Obviously there isn’t a randomized, blindfolded study published on my supposition. My point is that the “distortion” straw man set up in previous posts is not, in all cases, wedded to the effect on the listener’s ear in real life. So, I chose to make an example at the extremes. Thanks to today’s technology, you can buy a receiver at Best Buy tonight for $300 having gaudier distortion numbers than the Lamm ML2.2 SETs; a unit that the vast majority of professional reviewers regard as among the very best sounding amplifiers on the planet. 

Lamm ML2.2 SETs; a unit that the vast majority of professional reviewers regard as among the very best sounding amplifiers on the planet.

And that very debatable also, I heard the Lam’s driving the very easy load of Genesis 5.3 mids and tops only, (as the have active bottom end) and an old stereo Classe DR25 made the Lam’s sound lazy with less transparency and detail.

Cheers George

I don't think you need a preamp in a digital/streaming system.  You just need an attenuuator to "pre-attenuate" the signal.  If you want the best attenuation, the Benchmark LA4 is about as clean and transparent as it gets.

That said, if you try several linestages, you may find one that produces a deep emotional response when you hear music played through it.  But I don't think money relates directly to finding that magic, or that the linestage is objectively better than others.  It's all experiential.

In my case, it was a Modwright 36.5 with a NOS Mullard in the power supply.  Loved it in the first fifteen seconds and ever since.  Wouldn't let it go. More distortion? I'll trump that objective card with pure pleasure and a smile of musical bliss.