moving on from Emotiva UMC-200 pre/processor

Yes, I too had played with the old Adcom gfp 750 (forgot about that) and that was at least 12 years ago. But, with whatever CD sources I tried, the active setting sounded definitely weighted and more punchy than the more closed-in sounding and subdued, dynamically, passive setting! Once again, even though the passive setting was clearer n less colored, rock n dynamic stuff had more soul n powerful overall sound in active...that's just what I found, and Im pretty certain I sold that piece retail in two different WiFi stores at the turn of the century! ...in fact I'm also certain that we sold other ACTIVE preamps then, that were much superior over the passive adcom setup,if I recall. In fact Im pretty certain just about every hiend audio equip you could think of produced better sounding top end preamp during that time, of which the Adcom was no match, if I recall correctly?! I mean if the passive section of that 750 was that good, why wouldn't more reviewers using them as reference pieces in their own systems???!
Anyway, what was I missing then?...

ANYONE FOLLOWING THESE LAST FEW POSTS REGARDING PASSIVE PREAMP FRONT END VS ACTIVE, PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING STEREOPHILE ARTICLE FROM COREY GREENBERG,NOV 1991 STEREOPHILE MAG BELLOW

http://www.stereophile.com/solidpreamps/54/

..then you'll all understand my troubled frustrations and shortcomings with the passive thing over the years...

Avgoround,

I believe the source that was originally being considered as a substitute for a preamp was an Oppo BDP-105. The Oppo has very low output impedance and sufficient level to drive nearly any amp to full output. I use three analog sources, a Parasound JC-3 phono stage, an Ayre C-5xeMP, and stereo from an Oppo BDP-105, so I use a JC-2 to switch among them. I have tried the Oppo direct to my Proceed HPA 2 & 3 amps, and the sound is superb with no lack of dynamic range -- remember, any amplification amplifies both signal and noise, so doesn't change S/N. Even though I use a preamp for stereo, the surround outputs from the Oppo go directly to the amps.

db

Avo - the stereophile url you provided was incomplete. can you try again? thanks.

ahh ... ok i see it as this:

http://www.stereophile.com/solidpreamps/54/

note that this article is from 1995, not that there isn't plenty of relevancy here. just thought it worth noting.
hj