What qualities stand out in really good solid state preamps?


Recently I posted on the Herron HL-1, asking people what they thought, how it compared, etc. It's been sold and that's ok. The search continues. 

But it raises a question I'd like to ask folks:

What attributes do you look for in a good solid state preamp?

Some qualities — quietness, durability, seem pretty obvious.

But what other criteria do you use to differentiate between solid state preamps?

How can they differ and what matters to you?

Please let me know!

P.S. As I've looked around, I've begun to learn more about some of the legendary preamps — made by companies such as Threshold, Ayre, Bryston, Pass, Apt-Holman, and others. It's good to have these names as references, but it would be even more useful if I knew what these brands conveyed, sonically. I've played with the idea of getting a newer Schiit preamp and then I wonder -- what if there's a "classic" preamp out there, used? What would it deliver that was worth searching for?

128x128hilde45

@hilde45 Thanks for the explanation of your gear. You seem to be searching not only for differences, but for value. Your Quicksilver and Pass amps are nice gear. I assume you’ve found the solid state preamps you’ve tried are more neutral than your tube preamp, with tighter bass, a lower noise floor and perhaps more extended highs. Those are just guesses based on my listening experience.

As others have noted, if you haven’t already tried one, the Pass XP-12 should be a good match for your Pass amp. I would expect a pre-owned unit, however, to cost considerably more than an Ayre K-5. 
 

I hope you can audition more preamps and find one that stands out from the others. 

I’m surprised at the lack of focus on the relationship between the preamp and the amp. In my experience, the electrical characteristics of the preamp’s output and the amp’s input has had the greatest influence on getting good SQ out of the match.

That of course assumes decent gear. But I would bet a lot of what people are hearing and experiencing isn’t really inherent in the preamp, but rather the combination with the power amp. Lesser but still true with the relationship between the source and the preamp - my phono stage has a hot output and some of the preamps simply haven’t like it.  It's a bad match with my Levinson. 

In terms of SS, I have a Bryston, a classic Levinson ML-26, and an Emotiva. I use the last one the most, for daily low volume listening, because it has more true balanced connections that I find easy to switch around, but clearly the Levinson sounds best for focused listening. When I really want to rock out, I’ll go for the tube BAT preamp as I am loving the old stock tubes I’ve rolled into it.

For a component that is "supposed to be neutral", "adding nothing", looking at history of threads and posts over the past 15-20 years on this Audiogon site, seeing just how many of the same long-term members here have bought / tried / resold so many different preamplifiers or line stages. Kind of a surprise, actually.

Search for any of the mainstream preamps we all know out there, and you might just find a repeat of comments we see here on this thread.

I tend to believe some folks just like to rotate gear, and you’ll see comments like "I should have never sold that preamp". Isn’t neutral just neutral, well maybe not.

Perhaps that old preamp was that good, adding something more than nothing. :)

 

 

 

I’m trying to refrain from using a term “neutral”. I don’t know if my streamer, DAC, interconnects, cables and components downstream from the source are neutral. There’s just no way for me to possibly know that unless I can A/B what I am hearing at home with what it sounds like in the studio mixed by a recording engineer and played back on thar very same monitoring equipment.
All I can do is describe my ideal sound and tell you if I like a component or not.
Anyone stating Benchmark DACs. Preamps and amps, connected with mogami cables is a neutral setup - I don’t agree with it. But that’s just me.
I don’t mean to pick on Benchmark, but their electronics always sounded analytical and cool to me. Pass and Audio Research for example sound warmer and more to my liking. Does that mean benchmark is not coloring the signal but Pass and ARC components do? Not to me it doesn’t. Anyone saying anything is neutral, I call BS. That’s my take on it. Excuse me for being blunt.
 

It’s a good point above that whenever considering a pre-amp to consider how well it matches to the amp intended for use with it. Impedance matching is key. A high output impedance combined with a low input impedance will always color the sound and add distortion compared to same pre-amp with proper matched amp of higher input impedance. That’s just a fact! If not considered, one is much better off with an integrated amp where the design takes care of that for you. Tube preamps in particular tend to have high output inpedance and properly should be matched to amp of high input impedance, 10kohm or higher to be safe. Otherwise that clean neutral pre-amp goes to waste. Some might like the results still but you better at that point else the only option is change gear and try randomly again. Not an efficient, predictable  nor cost effective way to achieve desired results.