Uh- yeah. The better the pre amp and the rest of the system the better it all sounds generally speaking (not withstanding that Spotify is pretty limited). I stream exclusively and use Quboz via Roon (gave up on Tidal due to being unable to opt of of so many "E" rated tunes via the Roon / Tidal interface). Quboz sounds great and the better the gear, the better it sounds.
Are higher end preamps worth the investment when you are only streaming Tidal & Spotify ?
Amp: Modwright 150SE
Speakers: Aerial Acoustics 7T
Streamer/DAC/ : NAD C658
With the goal of achieving higher fidelity, would a 10k -12k MSRP preamplifier be overkill when you only stream from Tidal or Spotify? Do higher end preamplifier applications mostly apply to vinyl and /or high end transports vs subscription streaming?
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@puffbojie the ARC preamps you mention are very different from each other. The LS28 is very close tonally and performance-wise to the LS36.5, but the LS36.5 DM version beats it in just about every way. With the right tubes, both preamps can be very harmonically rich while still being quite transparent and resolving. The REF series from ARC are less harmonically rich and more clean sounding, focusing on resolution first. Given where your system is, I believe the LS36.5 or LS28 will be a better fit than the Ref 5. The Modwright LS-100 is good too, but more colored with more slightly rounded edges than the LS36.5. |
I basically asked the same question about my Eversolo going direct to my Mac amp versus going thru C2300. I got different answers from obviously it would sound better to changing tubes etc. For me, even if going direct sounds better, I would still keep the preamp because it ties in my other components. Digital streaming sounds so good now if one is on a budget, it’s worthwhile considering saving money from buying a preamp and using the savings on better speakers. |
Change to qoboz as someone else said.... A good dac is vital but I spent about 40-50% of total budget on speakers as I always believe end sound most important (river analogy with no point having throttle at end gotta flow into the sea/ears) But it's all incremental in the end but big benefits to sound in my books would be speakers/service stream provider/dac/amp/streamer (once past super cheap levels.
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