2. amps-preamps
  3. 1326265162

TRL Dude or Joule 150 MKII for Major Pre Upgrade

Thinking of either of these for what I view as a huge pre upgrade in my system. Current system is:

-Celestion A3
-Krell KAV250a (500 wpc/4 ohms).
-Nohr CD-1
-Rotel 995 preamp

I am looking to pickup warmth, depth and much more soundstage. Quality bass is also important to me. I want to keep the Celestions and feel that my current pre is the weakest link. Will also will update my digital source and ss amp down the road.

My thinking is that it will be worth paying up a bit for a higher quality pre that I can grow into.

Also I have a small naive question...with either of these pre amps will the sound difference be that great compared to the Rotel.

Thanks...any comments are appreciated.

-Iggy
iggy7
grannyring's avatar
grannyring
6,517 posts
 
I measured the Atlas amp again. It turns out if I touch the back steel plate I get no ohm reading. However when I touch a screw on the back plate with the center power cord ground pin on the iec I get a 14 ohm reading.

I learned this from calling Aesthetix. They tell me the amp is fine and I have some sort of unique room/house situation. Seems they will not be able to help me anymore and suggested I try a balanced preamp. Well, my amp has RCA inputs for a reason and I need to use them!

I am starting to doubt I will ever get an answer.

Vett93, the speakers buzz with my cd player unplugged and ic's also taken out that go to the cd player. So the source it not at all in play here.

I need to bring the amp to another home and system and see what happens.
vett93
205 posts
 
Granny,

I don't think my explanation is clear to you. My point is that the signal ground has to be grounded at one location for the entire system. Otherwise, the whole thing is floating. It seemed to me that your electrostatic speakers provided a grounding point. You lost the grounding point by switching to a set of passive speakers.

If you still use the same CD player as the one you used when we talked last time (a Marantz, I think), it does not provide a grounding point. If you look at the IEC socket of a Marantz CD player, there is no ground pin there.

To test my method, you will need to find a CD player that uses the AC ground pin, and plug in AC power cord to the wall and use the interconnect too. This is so that the CD player can provide a grounding point for you. I don't think you followed my explanation.
vett93
205 posts
 
Also, you will need to short pin 1 and 3 for the XLR connectors when you try my suggestion. I think it will work for you...
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,874 posts
 
Yes- if pin 3 is not tied to pin 1, while the RCA is in use, the amplifier will buzz whether the preamp is on or not, and whether its plugged into the wall or not.

Also, FWIW it is not uncommon for a preamp to buzz if it is not powered up. The reason is that the output impedance is usually much higher and can act like an antenna.

If the Aesthetix is really balanced, you should not have any troubles making this work.
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