Eliminated my preamp with amazing results

@lanx0003 

OK, no more speculating on my part. Lets look at the real story of exactly what Paul said...

For years he happily used a Direct stream DAC straight to amp because it sounded better without a preamp. Arnie had him listen to his 'Aesthetix Calypso' preamp. ($5000/7000) Paul agreed it was better.

Paul then went home and plugged in the best preamp PS Audio made and it sound WORSE! Why??? Arnie told him the reason it was worse was " You're not using a good enough preamp".

At that time they were using the Aesthetix in the main listening room. Arnie said..."Ya know, probably doesn't make sense to be using someone else preamp. Ya outta just make your own."

Paul set out and developed(with the late Bascom King) the BHK series ($7000)to be as good as the Aesthetix.

Paul summarized very clealy..." if you're not able to afford something as good as a BHK preamp($7000)DO NOT put a lesser preamp between the DAC and the amp. Go direct DAC to AMP" "it will sound BETTER".

I don't interpret this as Paul being an advocate for preamps, I see it as being an advocate for high end preamps ONLY. If you don't have the money (which some people can't afford) then avoid the preamp and going direct will sound better.

His words...not mine.

Gowan is a seller so honest it could be and listening to him i consider him honest...

But his advice made no sense at all when we spoke about ALL people needs, different gear at different price ...

My low cost tube preamplifier do marvel for my active speakers...

Gowan will say to me seriously if i dont buy his one , throw the low cost one in the trash bin ? If he said so he spoke as a seller in spite of common sense sorry...

No he will never say that if he was seriously thinking ...

We are not all people with unlimited budget ...

Audiophile is not about "absolute sound" per se, it is about the way to use optimally what we have ...

Anybody saying the opposite is in the top % of the population for money and probably ignore or underestimated acoustics and all the cheap way to optimize any system mechanicvally and electrically , with or without preamplification ...

My system is low cost but the sound is not trash sound AT ALL ... Even if i cannot compare with high end  and by high end for me an acoustic dedicated room is necessary by the way,  i compare with system many times over my price and for the other system better than mine i dont bother so minimally good is my acoustic experience on all count...

Even when they are honest, seller speak for their crowd not for all people... I prefer for advice acoustician and scientist who sell nothing ... Or users experiences ...

Paul summarized very clealy..." if you’re not able to afford something as good as a BHK preamp($7000)DO NOT put a lesser preamp between the DAC and the amp. Go direct DAC to AMP" "it will sound BETTER".

My understanding is that it has 2 main functions. #1 is to control volume. #2 is allow selection of various source components.

A very good question, @gdaddy1 which you almost answer completely, but I’d say a little off.

Besides source selection, a preamp’s jobs are:

• Level MATCHING
• Impedance MATCHING
• Equalizing (for phonographs)

@gdaddy1 @erik_squires IME preamps have 4 essential functions (this is limited to a line stage):

1) input selection

2) volume control

3) provide any needed gain (as will be the case if a tuner, phono section or consumer tape machine is used)

4) (and this is the least understood) reduce or eliminate  artifacts from the interconnect cable between the amp and preamp

Passive controls and TVCs are inherently incapable of point 4) above.

Gdaddy, I hope you understand that running directly out of your DAC is in fact using an active line section. Its dedicated to the DAC of course.

So this comment from your original post is not correct:

Having experimented with 'passive' preamps in the past (McCormack TLC-1) I thought the sound would possibly lose dynamics and bass response would suffer. WRONG!

because you are not working with a passive control right now. Make no mistake- for a DAC to drive a power amp directly the signal must be amplified to meet Redbook standards and that is done with an analog circuit similar to what you find in a preamp line section. As you can see, active circuits work quite well!

If a guy used a tube pre-amp then a regular solid state amp does the tube preamp inject the smoothness and soundstage of a tube?  Or, the tubes Must be in the amp to achieve the tube character of sound?  Does anyone have first hand knowledge?

@antigrunge2 

In the latter instance a passive should beat any active preamp on distortion, in the former the solution might be a better DAC. I have yet to hear a concise argument why a separate preamp with additional cables and innate additional distortion should beat a high quality DAC. For most modern designs arguments about impedance mismatches are irrelevant.

Agreed. It might be far better to allocate the money spent on a preamp and instead put it into a better DAC with a better volume control that may yield a much better quality sound. The DAC chips, jitter filters and proper volume controls should have a much bigger affect on the sound.