The future of preamps

@ Atmasphere, Hi, what are you talking about?, I am talking about the voltage out-put of a pre-amp of the signal to the amp, There is no way that 2 volts will drive my Krell 700cx correctly, the input sensativity is 3.58 volts min!!, all the krell pre-amps ever made put out more volts than that!, call Krell, I can tell you that with confidence!, the 18 volts was a given spec before clipping with the krell 700cx amp.,,BTw, I have used over a period of time, a source componet with analog 2.5 volts out-put direct to amp!, Thats funny!, the amp sounded like it was at half volume compaired to useing a pre-amp by anybody!, that BTw, do more than 2 volts out-put, I also understand the gain a pre-amp can give as well, LOL!

@ Atmasphere, Hi, I do apoligize for my post, However, I am correct with the pre-amps of krell, I am only saying what they told me on phone, on their site, it only gives out put over load specs of all the current pre-amps of 8 to 16 volts out-put, regarless, because of the gain a pre-amp gives, I believe I need a pre-amp to drive my Krell 700cx to full capacity!, I enjoy your post, and appreciate your input here,I run balanced, so the 16 volts out-put is over load, thats why krell told me pending on an older pre-amp or newer, 6 to 8 volts out-put is the norm for a krell pre-amp balanced out put, thankyou.

@ Atmasphere, Hi, your name would not happen to be Ralph would it?, Are you in relation to the atmas-phere audio company?, pending on the answers here, if you are, I do have many questions I hope you take the time to help me with., cheers.

12-13-13: Audiolabyrinth
@ Atmasphere, Hi, your name would not happen to be Ralph would it?, Are you in relation to the atmas-phere audio company?

LOL! Yes, Keith, meet Ralph Karsten, Founder and Owner of Atma-Sphere music systems.

Audiolabyrinth, Krell states that the gain of their amps is only about 25db. FWIW that is quite unusual (I had assumed their gain to be a more typical 30db), so in a high power amplifier you would indeed need more than 4 volts to full output. The spec on your amp is 3.58 volts for full output, so your amp probably makes right around 500 watts, assuming a similar gain structure.

The industry standard is 1 volt FWIW; that standard is really eroded at this point. However, most audiophiles do not push their amps to full output all the time- you still have to knock down the signal from a digital source if you want to use it. So a preamp is still useful.