2. amps-preamps
  3. 149349-84892

Preamp no longer makes a difference after caps and wire

I just wanted to check if anyone else had this experience. My tube preamp use to be pretty important at removing the harshness from my dac. Since I’ve upgraded the wired in my whole system and caps on my speaker they gave the system a tube like quality. I’ve been skipping the tube in the preamp and the difference in sound is almost minimal. I think I would have a hard time a/b the difference. 
thewatcher101
kalali's avatar
kalali
1,977 posts
 
Still don’t quite follow...how do you “bypass” the preamp? Do you have some sort of switch ahead of your amplifier and you switch between the preamp and direct DAC connection and use the DAC volume control?
reubent
6,979 posts
 
@thewatcher101 - Please list the pre-amp you are using.  
thewatcher101 OP
39 posts
 
Pathos Aurium
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,793 posts
 
A lot of people claim that cables take some time to break in. I've been doing this long enough that I don't question these claims; if I were you I wouldn't sell anything until you've had some time on the system. It does not matter if the cables break in or not- it may be you that has to get used to the system sound; but whatever it is it might well be the case that although you can't hear what the preamp is doing now, you may well hear it after a few weeks of playing the system as it is now.
'I always tell people make one change at a time, and then take plenty of time to live with it so you know you did it right (or wrong as the case may be).
reubent
6,979 posts
 
@thewatcher101 - The  Pathos Aurium is a headphone amp. I'm not familiar with it, but I looked it up. The only "outputs" it has are for headphones, plus an 1 XLR and 1 RCA "Tape" output. In this unit, I'm not sure what the difference might be for a "tape" output vs a traditional pre-amp output. I'm not sure you are using it as intended and I'm not sure any advice you may get will be valid considering it is not a traditional pre-amp.

Just curious, how do you have this connected to the amp that powers your speakers? What amp are you using?
More to discover