I used my Bricasti M1 DAC as a volume control so no need for me to add a preamplifier. My amps are the Bricasti M28's and the sound is stunning. However if someone felt that their solid state amp was a little to harsh they might want to mellow it out with a preamplifier.
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However if someone felt that their solid state amp was a little to harsh they might want to mellow it out with a preamplifier. Yes this is what they’re good for, a tube pre "maybe" to mellow, and many solid state ones that can add some "etching" (focusing). A passive is about as close to neutral you can get so long as impedance matched. And direct (no preamp) is the ultimate in transparency, like a straight wire, but if you don’t like it, you don’t like the sound of your source. And need one or the other active preamps to colour it. BTW "impedance matching", goes for actives "almost’ as much as passives do. Cheers George |
George, if you look further down on the Douk page of the device, in the specification section, it states that the Alps 27 pot is 50K ohms. I have not taken mine apart, which would be easy, but I am telling you, it sounds quite invisible. This one actually shows a 50kohm motorized pot not 100kohm, but a 10kohm would still be the best to match up with a lot more amps and sources. But this one is motorized but no remote or power input or receiver, I have no idea what these guys are into, and I don't think they do either. https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/FV3-passive-preamp-HIFI-volume-controller-ALPS-RK168-FOR-amplifier-NEW-VERSION-/143178261198?_trksid=p2385738.m4383.l4275.c10 Cheers George |
Disagree George It’s your right to, but fact is digital domain volume controls in dac and cdp’s are the most transparent way of controlling the volume. But like with anything there are proviso’s. To make sure they don’t go into "bit stipping" (resolution reduction from 16bit to 14bit to12bit the lower they go ) they should be use at or above 75% of full level. Wadia and Mark Levinson and Bricasti ect ect in their flagship dac/cdp’s models, know this and is why they give a user option of pre-setting the analog output buffer gain/level reduction or increase, to then enable the digital domain volume control to be used at or above 75% of full. EG: Wadia’s way of doing this. https://ibb.co/VQpdGHz. Mark Levinson was similar and Bricasti was a different way, from memory via the back panel. Cheers George |
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