Marantz SA8260 Direct to Amp

The 8260 doesn't have volume control. I was planning on buying an in-line attenuator. Also, here was my thinking on the situation: I have about $1,400 to spend on amplification. I thought that since I don't need to switch sources (I'm single sourced) or want balance or tone control...every dollar I spend on a preamp would be a dollar less to spend on my amp. However, now it sounds like if I do commit my entire budget on an amp the overall sound would be compromised. True?

i am not a big fan of passive.... it does offer a clean listening window, however there has always been a midbass and bass suckout (foundation of music).

if you have $1400 to spend for pre / amp. would suggest the following:

amps -
muse 160 II or pse studio v mono blocks (muse is a little easier going while the pse is very dynamic. both were $3000 amps when introduced and are still very, very good. it took a pair of classe cam mono 350 to displace the pse studio v's in my system. pse v monos go for $450-$550 and the muse 160 ii goes for $650 - $750

preamp - bat vk3...incredible build quality and sound for the money..can add phono, remote, cap upgrade later if you wish..goes for $750-$850.. the only drawback to this unit is finding nos 6922's...

if you want solid state then a ar ls-12. it was their last solid state piece and in very uderrated (very long break in period- 6 months).. it is totally neutral and transparent...you dont realize it till you actually compare it to a passive unit..goes for $800-$900... add the cap for 6db upgrade if you are running single ended source ($65)...

audible illusions L1 - magical with the pse v mono blocks..great combo..used 6922 tube but less of them..really musical unit that has a little coloration in the nicest way... works well with the pse v monos and the 8260 (i have personally used the L1,8260, and pse v's- awesome combo)

hope that helps,

mike

from what ive heard in my rigs running passive preamps & running amps with gain controls direct to a cd player i didnt care for it at all,i read alot of stuff where guys really liked listening that way so i tried it a few times with very poor results,maybee my rigs were mismatched,who knows but the result was dull & lifeless music that reminded me of a AM stereo radio station.

running a rig this way for the sake of a shorter signal path opens up other problem areas like having your system perfectly matched & leads to more cash being spent on cables,speaker wires & other tweaks trying to get it right.

you still cant go wrong spending your entire budget on an amplifier,if you dont care for the sound you can always add a preamp when cash flow allows,just remember when your looking for your new amp to pick an amp that has gain controls & you can use them as your volume control with no chance of damage to any equipment.

good luck,mike.

What I meant is that if he hooks up the Marantz directly to the amp without a passive at minimum it's likely he'll blow his speakers. The Marantz has no volume control I'm aware of and I have one. Standard output of cd players is about 2 volts or more than the maximum required by many amps to put out full power. He should at least get a passive as that's the closest thing to no preamp but personally I'd just get a real preamp. I've not tried any passives but would not want to lose any dynamics that I've read people talk about using passives.

Mikesinger, thank you for your recommendations, I'm looking into their availability.

To those of you whose experience was poor, running source direct: As rule of thumb, I understand, output impedance from the source should be below 300 Ohms, input impedance on the amp should be >50k Ohms and capacitance of the interconnects should be below 100pF/ft. Violating any of these measurements would cause high frequency roll off and mush bass. By any chance can anyone validate this by confirming that their components did NOT adhere to this rule of thumb???