New Preamplifier Testing (Poor sound)
I used to have a Rotel 1570 preamp (not the same, but close enough) and there are a couple of things that I remember the most: 1) Soundstage was very hard to get and required speakers to be set up "just right" or it sounded flat. 2) Sound changes for better after being on for an hour or so. After a while, I was leaving it on 24/7 3) Noise floor was crazy high, which made it seem less dynamic than others. (Plugin headphones directly in, and see if you can hear it) 4) Built-in DAC was just OK. To me it sounded like everything going through internal DAC had some EQ applied to it, and I did not like what it did. 5) Extremely sensitive to power sources. Tested with few power conditioners, surge protectors, and a regenerator, and each one sounds very different from another and worse than directly into the wall in most cases. Just having a backup power supply (Eaton 9px) plugged in on the same circuit (even when not feeding preamp), generated terrible distortion in the midrange. |
Hello, First: Is your volume all the way up on the DAC or in fixed mode. Sometimes when you attenuate the volume on a DAC or streamer you will lose some of that great sound. Second: sometimes some preamps do not sound great with some amps. See if you can borrow another brand of preamp from a friend or store or maybe see if you can find something on the forums to let you know what works and what does not. Last but not least: Try a thicker gauge power cord. It can be an inexpensive $50 cord but try get up to 14 or even better 12 gauge. Maybe you have a friend or a store that will let you borrow or demo one. I have tested this several times. You will need about three days of it being plugged in. This is because you need to charge the capacitors and let it settle plus have time to do some critical listening. So try to leave it powered on during that period of time. Please do not plug it in and right away do your listening test. If you are in the Chicagoland area this store I frequently buy from lets you demo or try before you buy. https://holmaudio.com/ Not just cables but all gear except turntables. I hope this helped. |
@vladedelman and @hshifi Thanks for the help! DAC volume is low, my streamer and preamp are managing the volume controls (Rotel at 50% volume and Zenith/Squeeze Box doing the rest), honestly I really agree with you all on letting it warm up and needing to leave it on (which I haven't done). So I'm gonna start there and I really think, just as you said, that I need to swap in and out a different preamp to try. So I'm looking into that also. I have about 55 days to try this, but honesty I might try to get a couple of other preamps and amps to do a side by side by side test over the next two weeks. I have a little plan, and gonna see if time wise I can pull it off, if so I'll have a pretty cool preamp-amp shoot out taking place at my home. Can't wait to see my wifes face when it happens 😆 |
