To Preamp Or Not To Preamp Vac 30/30 MkII

Thanks so much for your input. I find that Wadia works great at moderate to loud sound levels on the volume control i.e level 20-55 straight into the VAC. At low levels 8-20 I seem to loose dynamics, debth, seperation etc. When I use the Wadia at level 100 with a moderately priced integrated tube amp using amps volume control sound improves at low levels. Any thoughts on whether Wadia just works best set at the highest level?

Upgrading your amp is something you will be well rewarded for. I sent my VAC PA 35.35 in to Kevin & Co. It's like I bought a new, much more expensive VAC.

I have been using for years, a Sonic Euphoria passive line stage. Tremendous quality of sound, and no problems with having enough gain (actually not gain, as all it does is attenuate), (my analog front end, surprisingly, is actually a few db's louder than my digital front end).

There are adherents to both camps, active and passive pres, but this has worked very well for me. Good luck.

Regards,
Dan

The issue with the volume control has never bothered me. I understand that with the lower settings, you loose resolution. I did a pretty good test a few years back with some friends who wanted to find out how much of a sound quality loss there was with regards to lower volume settings. To make a long story short, none of us could hear any difference as all, regardless of volume setting. Actually, you are the first person I've spoken to that has heard a difference. Wadia says that you may hear a difference at settings less than 67. I guess they were right after all.

Either way, there may be a simple solution to all of this. From the looks of your post, it doesn't appear that you are aware that you can change the overall gain of your CD player. Its a feature that Wadia has that allows you to keep your volume setting as close to 100 as you can. (It also helps for high efficiency speakers as well, but thats not the case here.) All you have to do is flip the unit over and remove the 4 feet at the corners. Once you do that, you will have access to a threaded rod in each corner. Unscrewing them lets the remove the top. After you get the top off you will see a row of DIP switches. They control overall gain. Just experiment with it until you find a spot that lets you max out your volume as close to 100 as possible.

I have often been challenged with the same question. I have and love the VAC 70/70 but that isn't relevant to your question. IMO, it ultimately depends on your input source (and how many) , but I lean towards having one than not. A preamp removes the raw sound, provides coherence and helps with the imaging I have found. My input source is Sonos and I have tried with/without a pre and always go back to the pre. It's easier on the ears and simply brings everything together. My pre is a First Sound tube pre and whereas not all preamps are the same, I would still prefer one in my system for the reasons I mentioned.

Goodluck

I don't have a 30/30 but my experience with and without preamp up to now makes me tend to agree with ZD542 recommendations.