Nuforce STA200

Anyone have any thoughts on using this amp with a tube pre amp. I have a few tube pres that id like to try with it, but really dont want to insert a passive/attenuation in between...

concerned it will generate a lot of noise..particularity if i use one of my vintage tube pres...thanks for any info

I had a relatively high end tube preamp, which resulted in a hum through my 104 db efficient speakers, with this amp. The combo was fine with less efficient speakers. Same occurrence with a ss preamp, in both cases. Because of it’s high gain, it is a possibility noise can be a problem. The noise is not from the amp, as it is dead quiet. The other thing would be a very small amount of adjustment via the pre’s volume control. I love the amp though, and went passive. Some folks added a volume control ( a simple passive unit, something you said you did not want to do ) between their pre and the amp, to cut back the gain, and are quite happy. Enjoy ! MrD.

Sort of a newbie question:  I’m thinking of buying a second STA-200 in case I decide to add a second system to my house. In the meantime, is there a way to use both amps as monoblocks?  I could rebuild the x-overs on my diy speakers to biwire and run one amp for tweeters and another for woofers, but I’m not sure how I might run one amp per channel.

The STA 200 is not bridgeable, meaning you cannot combine both channels to make a single higher wattage amp ( usually impedance capability changes with the amp when you do this ). However, when you separate the crossover of the speaker, as you suggest, you can either horizontally biamp ( passively ), or vertically biamp ( again passively ), with 2 amps. Your example would be horizonal passive biamping. Each of 1 amps channels running the woofers, the other amps channels running the rest. Vertical ( which I prefer, based on my own listening ), would be each amplifier " dedicated " to 1 speaker, 1 channel to woofer, 1 channel to rest of speaker. This all works well when both stereo amps are the same. I hope this helps. Enjoy ! MrD.

Thanks MrD.  With vertical bi-amping, what happens (if anything) to stereo imaging if both R and L channels are powering the drivers in one speaker?