How much do I need to spend to get a preamp that sounds better than no preamp?

kalali


Ill take your bet

My system is balanced throughout

Oppo 105> Parasound P5 (the XLR circuit is separate from the RCAs) > 2 Emerald Physics 100.2SEs 

I bought the P5 a couple years ago because 

* it has true balanced I/Os
* a separate bass management circuit for my SVS powered subs. 
* it was affordable

A few months back Paul McGowan did a YT video saying the best way to connect subs is not with interconnects, but piggybacking off your amp/s speaker binding posts. And boy, he was right. So, thought I needed a better preamp. The closest balanced pre I found without spending a King's ransom (even used) was a used W4S STP-E, with passive/active volume, but IMHO, it's butt ugly.

I decided to run the 105 direct to my amps. I cannot imagine a preamp bettering what I am enjoying now, but the passive Lightspeed is intriguing. I wouldn't buy one without trying one as I am so overjoyed using the 105 variable VC direct. Now, a couple things are the  likely reason for my joy

1. my system is plugged into a CPT 1800 > 20 amp dedicated line
2. I added a couple aftermarket ebaye 105 mods; replaced the oem iec with a Furutek Rhodium + silver wires and replaced the oem power board with a Linear Power Module, the toroid is big enough to handle a lot of amps/preamps 

So its not clear where you are going with this, but clearly it fails to address my prior post if that was your intention.

I’ve addressed everything that need to Ralph. Once again simply.
"Any! active stage/s introduces noise hum and distortions, increase their gain and you increase those as well."
So it’s best to use as "most" as you can from the "passive" Master volume (which has virtually no noise hum or distortions), and use as little as possible "gain" from the active stage. Couldn’t be simpler.

Nelson Pass:
" A “passive preamp” - just an input selector and a volume control.

What could be better? Hardly any noise or distortion added by these simple passive parts. No feedback, no worrying about what type of capacitors – just musical perfection."

Cheers George

Any! active stage/s introduces noise hum and distortions, increase their gain and you increase those as well.

This statement is still false.

So it’s best to use as "most" as you can from the "passive" Master volume (which has virtually no noise hum or distortions), and use as little as possible "gain" from the active stage. Couldn’t be simpler.

Perhaps. At least it could make sense. The above comment does not. What were you trying to say?

Nelson Pass:
" A “passive preamp” - just an input selector and a volume control.

What could be better? Hardly any noise or distortion added by these simple passive parts. No feedback, no worrying about what type of capacitors – just musical perfection."

You cherry picked that one... What could be better? Nelson answers that:

Is impedance matching an issue? Passive volume controls do have to make a trade-off between input impedance and output impedance. If the input impedance is high, making the input to the volume control easy for the source to drive, then the output impedance is also high, possibly creating difficulty with the input impedance of the power amplifier. And vice versa: If your amplifier prefers low source impedance, then your signal source might have to look at low impedance in the volume control.

This suggests the possibility of using a high quality buffer in conjunction with a volume control. A buffer is still an active circuit using tubes or transistors, but it has no voltage gain – it only interposes itself to make a low impedance into a high impedance, or vice versa. If you put a buffer in front of a volume control, the control’s low impedance looks like high impedance.

If you put a buffer after a volume control, it makes the output impedance much lower. You can put buffers before and after a volume control if you want.

He confirms what I have maintained- a buffer at the input and a buffer at the output of the control are both helpful.

Any one who is blind to the fact and doesn’t believe that an active stage has noise, distortions ect, and any increase in gain of that active stage also increases any noise ect coming into it and within it’s self.
Your better to raise the passive master and let more of the source signal through, than to lower it and to raise the gain of the active stage and keep the master low, as your throwing away the sources signal level only to make it up again with added gain of the active stage.
I’m over saying it, and so is Nelson

Quote NP:
" Think of it this way: If you are running your volume control down around 9 o’clock, you are actually throwing away signal level so that a subsequent gain stage can make it back up.

And yet there are guys out there who don’t care for the result. “It sucks the life out of the music”, is a commonly heard refrain (really - I’m being serious here!). Maybe they are reacting psychologically to the need to turn the volume control up compared to an active preamp."

Cheers George