How much of the front end depends on the preamp

After 14 years of this hobby, I personally had the hardest time getting the pre amp right. And I owned some pretty highly regarded pre amps. All had a very different sound, each pre always caused larger changes than any component or speaker change that I made. So to me that tells me, it is the most critical part of the chain, or at least from a design perspective the most difficult to get right.

To the best of my knowledge, the "primacy" question was first launched in this country by Consumers Union, who opined back in the 1960s that the two transducers in a system (cartridge and speakers), being inherently most error-prone, made the biggest differences in the sound; therefore, the largest portion of your audio budget should be spent on them. (Of course, these are the same people who won't admit that either amplifiers or CD players sound different, so no wonder!) The approximate recommendations I remember were 50% on speakers, 20% on cartridge, and 30% on everything else.

Then along came Ivor Tiefenbrun in the mid-'70s to announce that the 'umble turntable—hitherto almost completely overlooked as a candidate for primacy—had to be considered first. After all, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that anything lost at the very front end can never be retrieved by the loudspeakers, nor that distortions created by the phono front end will be only amplified faithfully thereafter…

So says Larry Archibald in the 5/98 Stereophile

I can agree with elizabeth on the speakers not being the highest priority. I once heard a demo by a B&W rep where he hooked up a pair of 602's to the kind of high end gear you would associate with the Nautilus line. It sounded great.

I personally for a lone time kept using a $1500 pair of speakers. Every time I got better gear, the sound kept getting better, so I kept the speakers. I ended up with a pre/pro combination that lists for $7500 before I finally got new speakers. The old inexpensive speakers still sound great with that gear; the better speakers are just a little more refined.

I still have those old $1500 speakers in another system with a pre/pro combo that would list for $4500 new.

If you look under my review link, you'll see I am using a custom made Blue Circle preamp. Was the way to "get the preamp it right" for me anyway.

Dear Joe: Your question is a very controversial one: +++++ " How much of the front end depends on the preamp . " +++++

Analog front end?, I want to do easy: TT, cartridge/tonearm and phonolinepreamp. I know that we have to consider cables, platform, electric energy supply, etc, but like I say lets do easy.

All de links in this analog chain are really important and critical, how much important/critical they are: well, for this question we could have several/different opinions like the number of people that give an answer about. I think that there is no absolute answer only a relative one according our experiences and each one priorities.

In my case: 20% to TT, 35% to cartridge/tonearm and 45% to phonolinepreamp. I know that for other people the TT is more important that the cartidge/tonearm combo, here it is what I think about: the cartridge/tonearm combo is the analog audio link ( front end ) that has the task to track, " read " and translate properly the record information, all this task depend on the good match of the cartridge with the tonearm characteristic. I know that if we don't have a TT those cartidge/tonearm tasks can't do it, but the issue here is that the transducer is the cartidge it self: that's the high importance it has. I can give you an example: if you change your Rega TT for a better one maybe you could hear a little improvement in the quality sound reproduction but if you change your Rega cartridge for a better one you should hear a higher improvement on the quality sound reproduction, no doubt about.

Now, the phonolinepreamp has not only a very critical tasks but a very hard tasks.

The Phonolinepreamp has to amplify that very low level signal that comes from the cartridge&tonearm and has to amplify it with out noise&coloration&distortions in any way. Only for you can feel the weight of the phonolinepreamp work I give this example>

a moving coil cartridge that has a 0.2mv of output level needs that its low level signal be amplifyed 10,000 times , that is for 2 volts for an amplifier can runs the speakers. 10,000 times !!!!!!!!!!!!, just imagine.

This is the critical task for what we are talking about.
But it is not only this amplify task with out noise&colorations&distortions what the phonolinepreamp has on target there is, at least, another more critical issue> the inverse RIAA eq. curve and its accuracy. Almost all the LPs were cutting according the RIAA eq. standard curve where, in an easy explanation, the bass frequency were down in volume around 20db below the original and the high frequencies were over around 20db higher than the original. This up and down changes conform the RIAA eq. curve that afect the whole frequency range. This RIAA eq. curve is extremely accurate and the phonolinepreamp has to mimic this RIAA eq. at inverse, that-s means that the inverse RIAA eq. in a phonolinepreamp has to return the bass&high frequencies at its original level, meaning that after the inverse RIAA eq. the signal should be flat with out any deviation. This phonolinepreamp work is a task that only a few phonolinepreamps can do it with low deviation from the RIAA standard>. This deviation should be no more than 0.05db from 20Hz to 20kHz. Which of the phonolinepreamps that everybody use meets these critical and audible spec. Think about.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.

Dear Joe: You could be done changing your Yamaha.

Regards and enjoy the music.
Raul.