The Best Preamp is no Preamp?

So recently I've discovered the possibility of completely removing my preamp from my rig. I've never heard or considered this before, so much audio tradition... But in going directly from DAC to amplifier the sound quality is absolutely incredible, instantly had me grinning. Using music server to Chord M Scaler to Chord Qutest (cut out Marantz SR5015) to go directly to dual Emotiva XPA-DR1 monoblocks, to GR Research's 24 strand speaker wire to Magnepan 1.7i's. Only difference is running volume on server vs Marantz remote, sound quality is the biggest jump I've ever heard with any gear.

Have you guys had experience cutting out the preamp from your rig? What's your thoughts?

brandonhifi02-14-2022 4:53am

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tomic601 Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 12,987 posts 02-14-2022 at 05:44pm Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete Experimentation is good ;-) ..but limited to a specific combination of gear, especially the ability of the source to drive the amp…. That gear as Ralph astutely points out includes cables. Putting a super high quality attenuatior near the amp input is probably best. The comment about super short speaker cables is master class ;-) You can get NOS Nobel potentiometers from Music Reference, search pot in a box, jim
ozzy62 Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 3,189 posts 02-14-2022 at 05:51pm Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete I'm not a big fan of the "no preamp" school of thought. But I have had all manner of active and passive preamps come through my room and I am convinced that a well thought out system will benefit from some type of very good passive device. I've had autoformer, transformer, and conventional resistor based preamps but my favorite is something like the Tortuga Audio using light dependent resistors. This is about as close as you can get to no preamp, but solves the issues with component impedance mismatches. The take away is when you have sensitive, easy to drive speakers, enough source gain, and components that play well together, a good passive preamp is hard to beat.
phantom_av Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 326 posts 02-14-2022 at 07:03pm Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete Personal Experience, Trying many possible methods DAC to Amps with various Dacs and Various Amps. Final Conclusion: Pre-Amps is Required. Some Dacs have Pre-amps built into them like Playback Design and MSB and various others. However much these companies claim their pre-amps are superior to use directly with Amplifiers the final results is never as expected. The Pre-amp is the heart of the system, all devices are connected to it except the speakers. It either makes or breaks a good sounding systems. A Tube Pre-amp injects life and soul into the system, iv not had much luck with SS Pre-amps.
fuzztone Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 5,634 posts 02-14-2022 at 07:24pm Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete Some preamps degrade the SQ over direct, some improve. No experience as I require the switching capabilities and my pre reviews as nuetral as it gets.
jjss49 Details Discussions Posts This discussion Message User 6,612 posts 02-14-2022 at 07:44pm Copy Comment URL Report Comment Edit Delete this is a case where specifics drive the outcome, generalities are fun coffee table chatter, but are inconsequential what really matters is whether the source has enough capability to drive the downstream power amp well enough, and whether the built in volume control of the source degrades the sound many wonderful linestages add their own coloration, but improve drive and impedance match, thus compensating for the source inadequacy in that regard... most top tier pre’s pay close attention to high quality attenuation... so in the end, we pick the lesser of all evils in the op’s specific case, he has highly resolving speakers in the 1,7i maggies, an exceptionally pure and capable source in the chord stack - sonically this combo will be very very hard for any linestage to beat, unless the op seeks a specific sonic signature to be added, the marantz receiver in the chain is definitely a major major sound degrader 1 caveat and 1 question to op -- caveat is i have never heard the op’s emotiva amps, they certainly have the iron fist aspect to drive maggies, dunno if they also have the needed velvet glove to fully please sonically -- question is what is op using to control volume running qutest into power amps? qutest is a fixed output dac (sorry if i missed this if already covered...)