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Matching components?

I’ve read a couple of posts on this site alluding to the notion that one can be best assured of positive results by matching components produced by the same manufacturer when assembling a stereo system. Is this really a thing? Should I worry that a Decware phono stage won’t play nice with my ARC linestage? Or that I would have been better served by finding an ARC DAC in lieu of the Black Ice FX DSD I recently acquired?

Just looking for a little guidance, as my budget is such that I really can’t be screwing this up...

thx
rfnoise
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 

Matching components?



"Matching" is mostly impedance matching, output impedance of one piece into the input impedance of the next piece.
Read this "simple" explanation.
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/impedance-matching-why/post?postid=2162298#2162298

After that there’s a loose thing call "coloration matching", and that becomes more personal, than those will have you believe here. As it's main one is "your room" then individual pieces of equipment.


Cheers George
chicagoblue1977's avatar
chicagoblue1977
224 posts
 
Not at all. 
I have all Moon by Simaudio when it comes to Transport, DAC and Integrated but have a Lejonklow phono pre amp and it sounds fan freakingtastik. 
erik_squires
16,545 posts
 
Kind of depends.  Tube gear has a harder time matching, but you can still match outside of your brand.

Really depends on the attributes you want. It's quite common for listeners to get a juicy tube pre and stiff solid state amp from different makers for instance.
rfnoise OP
153 posts
 
Matching is mostly impedance matching


I’m hip to that. My LS-25 is 300ohm out to my Legacy amp’s 50kohm in, so I’m good there. A little math also showed that my pre has sufficient output voltage to drive my amp to full power.

noromance's avatar
noromance
10,042 posts
 
Mostly not an issue. I have a DAC feeding a 15 year old tube preamp driving 50 year old tube amps!
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