Does dcs Vivaldi stack needs a pre amp

info2rdw
Does dcs Vivaldi stack needs a pre amp
Hi all - I am considering buying a dSC Vivaldi Transport, DAC and clock, but can only do this if I can sell my Solution 520 pre.

Any experience having your Vivaldi stack directly connected to your amp?

The output stage of the Vivaldi is definitely as good or better than the output stage of the Solution.

The Vivaldi setup has 2.3ohm!!!! output impedance, which is better/stronger than 99% of preamps and the Solution’s, which is 10ohm.
The Vivaldi also has up to 6v (settable) available from that output, most amps only need 1v!!! in to give their maximum rated wattage before clipping.

So you are in front which ever way you look at it. Unless you want the colouration’s/distortion’s that a preamp will bring to the party. But I can’t see anyone wanting to change the sound of the Vivaldi!!!

Sell the Solution so you can get the Vivaldi and go direct to poweramp with it you won’t look back. As the quality of the source is where it all starts, everything after that can’t make it better, you can just hope to maintain it without corruption.

You can also "set" the Vivaldi’s "output level" separately, so it’s volume control is near to full up for your system to be at it’s loudest. This way there is no risk of "bit stripping" with the digital domain volume control.


Cheers George

Here also is Michael Fremer’s (Stereophile) sound impressions with the Vivaldi direct into his Dartzeel 458 monoblocks, and he loves his Dartzeel NHB18ns preamp which is no slouch, so for him to say this is quite understated, as he's a vinyl freak.

Fremer: "Directly driving my amplifiers, produced high-resolution digital sound that I found easy to warm up to. The Vivaldis comprise the best non–digital-sounding digital system I’ve heard"

Cheers George

@georgehifi - thank you. I have seen your other contributions to the discussion folkfreek mentioned earlier.

Listening and judging by yourself is actually the best way to determine if the “colorations” ones audio setup “generates” suits your ears.

I am not the best Techie out there and the matching components part has been at least for me a challange from a impedance mV and Watts angle :)

Obviously there are pros and cons, but let’s see what the dCS stack does is my setup.