Anything new, in preamps with HT bypass, worth considering coming out at this year's RMAF?
Preamps with HT pass through?
I am looking into preamps with a home theater pass through function, to send the HT processor signal straight through the preamp unchanged, to the main left/right channels of my Cary Cinema 5 amp. I have a preference for solid state preamps. I do not need a built in phono section, I will have an outboard phono pre unit. I am aware of the Cary CPA 1 and the new Cambridge Audio 840 preamp. Are there others that should be considered, at the under $2000.00 mark?
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It is just over your budget and it is tube preamp. Not exactly what you are looking for but definitely worth a look. It has HT by-pass. The unit does not have to be "ON" for this function to work so you save tube life in a long run. It is battery powered preamp - no noise, no power issues. And most importantly, it sound awesome. Dodd battery powered preamp Another place that sells it....for a bit less Mariusz |
Anthem's preamps do this - AVM20 - AVM 30 - AVM 50 or Statement D1 take your pick - they do pretty much everything else imaginable too (you can program input routing to a DSP for bass management or just do analog direct without even a tone control in the path - just a Burr Brown op amp). If you are looking for functionality then take a look at those. The only drawback is that the six multichannel inputs are just ordinary RCA and not XLR...the outputs are all XLR though. The key with these preamps is the incredible flexibility they come with - I particularly like the digital controlled voltage - every time you power up it resets the gain to a low value - you can also adjust the input sensitivities for each component - this prevents you blowing something if you switch sources to a device with a high signal level. Specs on the Anthem preamp processors will not outperform a similar priced dedicated two channel preamp but even the channel separation (the worst spec on the entire unit) is a not so shabby 82 db - you can, of course, find better in that department from a Levison but it will cost you a lot more. |
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