Mitch2, your experience mirrors my own. I always tell people that if the line section is properly designed, a passive won't touch it, but if they hear the passive being better, it simply means that the line stage in question was not 'properly designed'. 'Mid-level preamps' probably describes that quite well.
Is no preamp the best preamp of all?
As an experiment I hooked up my OPPO BDP-95 (which has a volume control) directly to my amp. I was very pleasantly surprised to hear a significant improvement in clarity and sound quality. Typically I have the analog outputs on the OPPO running through my preamp in Analog Direct. I have heard that the circuitry within preamps can cause cross-talk in the analog signal, deteriorating the quality of the signal. So, would having no preamp (and therefore no other circuits to interfere with the signal) be better than an expensive analog or digital preamp running in Analog Direct? I am not really interested in Room Correction or DSP of any kind. I was considering purchasing a Bel Canto PRe6 (which I've read is excellent for multichannel analog), but would it be better to just have the OPPO running directly to the power amp?
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- 58 posts total
- 58 posts total