2. amps-preamps
  3. 1074137850

preamp or no? if so, which one?

hey guys.
i just started looking for a preamp and am looking for some guidance.

so far i have thiel 3.5s and a classe ca-200. my only source will be a cd player, which i have yet to purchase. i usually listen to live concert recordings done with mics, not from the soundboard. the recordings usually have warmth and capture the ambience of the room, so i don't really want to add anything to the sound.

i guess my first thought is, do i even need a preamap?
should i use a cd player with a volume control, or can a separate volume control be used between a cd player without a volume control and the bass eq box (came with the 3.5s)?
i should also add that the eq box doesn't have balanced connections.

if i do decide to go without a preamp, how do i go about impedance matching, and are there any other compatibility issues?
how would the eq box affect matching the components?

finally, i'de like "cost effective" solutions, if possible. i have the speakers and amp that i will probably hold on to for a while, so it doesn't bother me to leave some room for improvement in the preamp/cd player areas. i have nothing against upgrading these components later.
ketchup
listener57
730 posts
 
For a single source system, such as CD only, one very cost effective solution is to mount a pair of tweakaudio.com "EVS Ultimate Attenuators."
One attenuator is physically inserted into the left RCA input jack of your amplifier, the other attenuator into the right RCA input jack. You simply plug your source interconnects directly into the attenuators mounted on the amp inputs.
The retail list price per pair is $350, and the designer, Ric Schultz, will deliver to you a set to match either a tube or a transistor amp.
These only last about thirty seconds before being snapped up when rarely placed for sale used on Audiogon. I was lucky to get mine used on Audiogon, but even at retail list price, you really can't go wrong, either.
If your CD player or DAC is not ideally suited to play directly into an amplifier, then I recommend the SCE Harmonic Recovery Enhancer ( I think I typed it correctly) which for $250 used on Audiogon optimizes signal transfer from any CD source output to any amplifier input, including an input with the Ultimate Attenuators mounted.
The performance without a traditional preamp can be astonishingly transparent, revealing all the potential of your CD source, and amplifier. They have to be components you love to listen to unadorned.
ejliu
109 posts
 
I do have an old version of the EVS attenuator that I used as a backup preamp. The main problem might be insufficient gain and/or impedeance matching with any passive preamp.

Don't know what the sensitivity on the Classe for full output.
rwwear
2,867 posts
 
You only need a preamp if you can't get enough gain or dynamics without one. Most CD players have about 2 volts of output which is fine most of the time. But if you want to rock, you may need more. And of course, you need volume control and maybe switching.
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