what pre amp for my setup,

Timo is right, the preamp is something else that will distort your sound. With every peice of equipment that the signal must pass through you create more distortion. If however you need a tape-loop, then your forced to a preamp perhaps.

There are many preamps out there to chose from. Very hard to make a recomendation without knowing your speakers, room size, etc. If you insit on a preamp try a well known brand that is a little outdated. That way you will gain some experience, get the feel for a companies basic signature. And if you don't like it, you can usaully sell it without losing money. Assuming you bought it at a good used price.

In my experience like all components, each changes the sound either better (to your liking) or worse (not to your liking). So premaps will add more dynamics and more fullness to the mids so don't. There are plenty of dealers who will send you a preamp to try out right here on Agon so call them and try one out it is that simple.

Happy Listening.

In my experience I seem to always prefer having a tube preamp in the chain, but that's just me. I enjoy the life, fullness and dimension a tube preamp adds. For me a tube preamp enhances the musical experience. Others may feel this just more distortion in the signal path.

It's definitely a personal thing, and therefore no correct answer or categorical statement can be made about which is better. It's almost like saying one color is better than another.

Get a better idea of what you like in musical reproduction and what you hope to gain by adding a tube preamp, then you'll know if it's the right move for you.

Raildog, is Timo your dad? :)

If I remember correctly, Guy Hammel of Placette Audio who makes a fabulous active linestage and supposedly a fabulous passive one as well, claims that many of those who buy the active are those who previously owned his passive. And the rumor is very strong that an active most always has greater dynamics than a passive.

In my case, even an active is too passive as I've owned a Placette Active Linestage (only single-ended connecitons) in the past but found that XLR connections (with the 2 additional volts) in my config. has much more dynamic swing and punch than any other single-ended or XLR connection that I've owned or heard. And therefore much more of that live bite found in live music. Even though the Placette was fabulous at what it did.

-IMO

A recent "passive" experiment brought a completely different result to Stehno's above. I tried a 100kOhm pot on my 47kOhm /50kOhm power amps and.. the dynamics are stunning. The b/ground detail is good, too -- OTOH, the difference b/ween loud and quiet passage is so promounced that I have to get up & lower the volume....