You might not get enough volume using a phono preamp with a passive preamp. It all depends on the gain of the phono preamp and the output of the cartridge that you are using. The remote will work on all the sources that are being used!
What is a non-active pre-amp stage?? Are their advantages to this design??
I am considering an Conrad Johnson CA-150 integrated amp which offers a "non active pre-amp stage"
Need and explanation of this design. What are its pros and cons?? Does it provide better sound quality or performance, than an "active pre-amp stage" ?
Any comments about the C.J, CA-150 integrated amp sound quality??
Thank you,
S.J.
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- 13 posts total
@sunnyjim - Yogiboy might be right about the phono stage, but I have no problems with my Simaudio Moon phono stage which has an adjustable gain jumper in it. Passive "pre-amps" only attenuate the signal. Sometimes they have an intermediate "booster amp stage" between the inputs and the actual power amp section in order to provide the same overall abilities as amps with an active pre-amp. If all of your components output the standard "line level" output voltage then everything should work fine. The CA 150 does have a remote (as stated in the manual), so yes - you can do everything from your armchair. Hope that helps - Steve |
From the look of the product page on their site this is an integrated amp by another name without input buffering before the attenuator... which is a pretty normal integrated amp design. Personally I prefer to buffer the input to the attenuator (which makes it active), this allows the use of lower value resistors (800Ω instead of 10,000Ω) in the attenuator which means lower (johnson) noise levels. I'm afraid I've not heard the amp in question so can't comment on that but it might be worth auditioning passive vs active if you can get a dealer to set that up for you. |
sunnyjim jond You heard of Nelson Pass no doubt (Pass Labs, Threshold ect ect) This is what he said about passive volume controls, and yes he does make/ designs active preamps after all he is a business man.
Cheers George |
Just to be clear, an active preamp doesn't have to add gain, there is benefit to be had in using the active component/s to present a high impedance to the source and low impedance to the load. DIYers are in a better place to decide which way to go as they are more likely to properly understand the impact of their choices and the electrical characteristics of the equipment connected. A passive device needs to be selected carefully because too low an input impedance may overload the source equipment... okay so lets choose a high resistance pot / attenuator. But in the absence of any active components the output impedance of the preamp is the one presented by the pot / attenuator. The output impedance of any preamp in conjunction with cable capacitance creates a low pass filter - with well matched equipment this will be at a higher frequency than we care about in the audio world. However with a passive preamp this may start to creep in to the top end of the audio range. There are other advantages to active preamps that I could go into but I feel I may have been too technical already. One architecture isn't necessarily better than the other, but if you don't fully understand the characteristics of your components then you're probably safest going active. |
- 13 posts total