The future of preamps

Jon,
I do agree that art and science are combined when designing and building audio components. The ear of the designer is a crucial ingredient. If it were exclusively hard science then one could rely only on mathematics and equations and then confirm with measurements. It obviously is much more involved than that, just listening makes that apparent. General engineering priciples can't be ignored but there's certainly a lot left to individual designer interpretation given the vast choices of different sounding components.
Charles,

Hey Phusis. I have to give you a little support here. I have been playing my nice sound systems for about 48yrs. I have also listened to quite a few other systems and pre amps. By way of back in the day(1980-1990)doing work for some high end audio stores and hanging out in them and taking stuff home listening to it quite often using the owners and employees suggestions on what would be great to try. These places are still very active businesses.

I have had some tube pre's and solid state also. I think Jon's 'Rowland' mentioned above is quite a special one and it looks like he may know that. I happen to really like almost everything Jeff Rowland produces. Anyway I personally have all ways gone back to a passive or a passive with a what I consider a high quality buffer. All very minimalist. I have found for me going this way is more musical than any active pre(I haven't heard them all). Now when I say more musical I mean it conveys more of the sounds I am familiar with. More of the sounds meaning all of it from the initial attack to the trailing harmonics and the tonal balance. So to me (I can only guess its true but I think I have a good handle on it)I find this way more true to the natural and original sound. My background with music is when growing up I had a lot of live living room musicians to listen to. Piano, guitar-electric and acoustic, banjo, tenor sax, viola, tambourine, drums, harmonica and maybe some others. And I am also a play around guitar player. And honestly I think when you are listening to reproduced music in your living room that having live music in your living room or on the patio would give one more closely a apples to apples approximation.


I think if one has an active one would probably need to do more than drop a passive in to compare. I think you really need to pick your components for a passive system to optimize it. Just like you would do with changing any component. I say that (as many here say that the pre amp has a considerable effect and change on a sound system)because I think going from a active to a passive is one of the bigger changes one would make to a system.

I think we have a lot of wonderful equipment to choose from to provide a glimpse into the music we listen to. I am grateful for the designers and producers of our fine gear. So I also appreciate the varied views because I have only mine.
Enjoy

Marqmike,
Well said,
Some will prefer active and others will choose a passive. The fact that there's a very viable market for both is all the proof we need. You're right, variety is good and there are many fine components to select from.
Charles, .

Audiolabyrinth, despite what you quoted in the manual, that idea that somehow tube preamps have DC at their output is a myth! Most tube preamps have a coupling capacitor at their output and so cannot produce DC.

I suspect that is something concocted to sell solid state preamps.

Any tube preamp manufacturer has to contend with the fact that their preamp is going to get used with a solid state amp at some point. There are many threads on this forum to that effect. Many transistor amps have direct-coupled inputs, so any designer knows that if you have DC there it will cause problems for the amp and possibly the speaker too. But fortunately its not something that is a particular concern, as coupling capacitors are very effective and will prevent DC from being a problem at the output of the preamp.

The only thing you have to be careful about (which is true of solid state preamps as well!), is to turn the preamp on first and wait for it to stabilize before turning on the amp.

Charles1dad,

It is interesting to note that personal experience does not always go in tandem with common sense and logic which would define that the shortest simplest path should be the best.

Audio design is indeed as much an art as it is a hard science.