The Best Preamp is no Preamp?

@r27y8u92

Thank you for sharing you system. This is really helpful in assessing how pertinent your experience is to a readers system since we all have grossly different systems. 
 

It is great that you experienced such an improvement. Good going.

I have a Sys passive preamp and tried it on quite a few power amps.It does not get the best out of any of those amps compared to a decent active preamp.

Hello All,

My current system consists of:

Quicksilver v4 monoblocks using GEC Ki88's (new issue)

The Truth preamp  or Bottlehead BeePre running GEC 300b tubes

VPI HW-19 Mk IV with a Woody String Theory tonearm and a Soundsmith Zephyr cartridge.

A Bottlehead Eros phone preamp

A Cinemag 1254 SUT

A OPPO 205 CD Player

Speakers are DIY Watt Puppies

I switched from the Eros preamp to the Truth preamp.  While the Eros was very nice it had a little glare in the treble.  The Truth cleared that  up plus the bass was deeper and more defined, the soundstage was bigger and more precise.  So in my system it definitely improved the sound quality.  

Arthur Salvatore @ High-EndAudio.com gives a very good explanation of why this might be.  He also gives a good explanation of the technological aspects of the Truth preamp.  

Hope this helps.

Richard

I tried this in the late eighties, when I had a Mission PCM CD player that had a volume control on its remote. I had been playing this through a Musical Fidelity integrated amp, but just for fun one day, I got out its predecessor, the original NAD 3020 which allowed input direct to the power amp stage. The difference was absolutely striking in terms of increased clarity. Because the CD player reverted to max. volume every time it was switched off, I looked at passive preamps. The simplest and cheapest was a QED* switch and potentiometer that took one input and passed it through unchanged, and one that went through the potentiometer. So this added one switch, one potentiometer and an extra pair of interconnects into the system. I could hear it, or was sure I could. Not as good, but more convenient. I also tried a QED remote controlled passive pre-amp that had several inputs, all volume controlled. It wasn’t better.

But moving to other CD players, as they were developing and improving quickly in those days, I had to use one or other passive preamp as none had volume controls. Once I decided to reactivate my LP collection I had to move back to active preamps, and found the sound livelier and more dynamic, even if less starkly clear. I don’t really think now of one or other as better, but just different.

*I wonder what happened to QED? A British manufacturer of very high quality accessories in those days.