[TheChairGuy]

http://www.angelfire.com/biz/bizzyb/DENON.html

SS preamp with tube amp...anybody else successfully done this out there?

[DSK]

Howdy, have a look/search in the 'power/pre-amps' section of audioasylum.com and you'll find tons of threads on this. Cheers!

[pacifico]

seems like  a scam; I will be going the other way soon....nice tubey w/ my NAD have about 1K... any suggestions?

[No Hassle]

Is your name from the excellent mexican beer?  If so you have great taste in beverages.  No Hassle.

[TheChairGuy]

Howdy, have a look/search in the 'power/pre-amps' section of audioasylum.com and you'll find tons of threads on this. Cheers!

Under SS amp tube preamp, perhaps?

[DSK]

Howdy, have a look/search in the 'power/pre-amps' section of audioasylum.com and you'll find tons of threads on this. Cheers!

Under SS amp tube preamp, perhaps?

Here's a current one for starters .... http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/amp/messages/107435.html

[DSK]

And here's a list of search results ...  http://db.audioasylum.com/cgi/search.mpl?forum=amp&searchtext=ss+pre%2C+tube+amp

Hopefully there's some useful info in there.

[avahifi]

We would suggest that an audio system can be considered to be a "chain" of components and cables, and that the ultimate performance will be limited the most by the weakest link in this chain.

The trick is to identify and fix the weakest link first to get the most improvement for you investment.  Almost always, it is not going to be the cables or power cords, but significant non-linearities in some active component, the listening room, or unfortunately the talent and/or recording techniques of the source material itself.

We thing the suggestions above (typical solid state preamp with typical tube power amp) are simply a rather futile attempt to fix things by going to equipment with complimenting non-linearities.  Hard bright preamp to make up for mushy warm amp - - - along those lines or similar.  This approach does not satisfy long term.  Each unit, in and of itself must be designed for as perfect a playback capability as possible.  There is no such thing as "a speaker great for rock but not for classical".  A better way to state this would be "this speaker's imperfections are not as annoying on rock as on classical."

Again the real engineering effort and quest is to identify and fix the worse case problems first.  There is far too much polishing the handrails on the Titanic going on out there.

Far too many audiophile assumptions seem to be valid on the surface, but fail when examined carefully.  For example, "you got to be DC coupled all the way for great bass."

Since any active devices become very non-linear as you approach DC, and any passive power supply can be modeled as a capacitor and that capacitor blocks DC, then a carefull look at this tells us that as the signal approaches DC, the distortion will rise to 100 percent!  So we can more correctly restate the adage above to suggest, "you got to be DC coupled all the way to have great low frequency distortion," not exactly what we wanted.

I suggest you beware of suggestions of "component matching" to make your system better, unless you are matching components that each, on their own, have no issues you cannot live with.  The world is full of expensive nasty audio systems.  Note too that your opinion of what sounds great and another's probably differ more from the subconscious issue of what defects each of your can tolerate better than the issues of what you like better.  It is likely that as the equipment becomes closer to perfect, that your opinions will converge.

Have a great New Year.

Frank Van Alstine

[Daygloworange]

Each unit, in and of itself must be designed for as perfect a playback capability as possible.  There is no such thing as "a speaker great for rock but not for classical".  A better way to state this would be "this speaker's imperfections are not as annoying on rock as on classical."

I've read that a lot of different places, where people say that about speakers. It never made any sense to me from a logical perspective, and now that I've built almost half a dozen speaker kits, it doesn't hold true in the practical either. So for a novice building his first high end system, they could be mislead easily.

A speaker doesn't know what genre it's being fed. It is just reproducing electronic signals. I prefer a speaker that is neutral, without coloration of any sort. On recordings of poor quality, it shows up, and in spades, particularly in the mids and highs, right where you would expect it, where the human ear is most sensitive. This happens on any genre, lots of classical is recorded very poorly as well, not just rock. But on well recorded music, the results are simply amazing. I suspect that a lot of people try and get a synergy of components that tries to sound good across the board, IMHO I believe that the tradeoff there might be that they somewhat shortchange themselves on well recorded music to some degree because of that.

I guess by that, then it seems that it holds true that equipment that measures well, will perform well sonically. Ironically, from what I'm hearing, I believe some peoples home systems have more resolution than that of what studio engineers are at times using.

Cheers

[TheChairGuy]

Well said and well written (as usual) Frank - thanks for the New Year food-for-thought.

I see Paul/Busy Bee's recommendation of a SS preamp to not be so much as a 'band-aid' to fix soggy tube bass (etc.) so much as a simple statement of reality.  Here you have a mass produced 100 watt receiver for $599.00, produced by a company of great reknown with hundreds of electrical and mechanical engineers worldwide and the benefit of economies of scale not possible in the specialist hi-fi channels, with a unit now relieved of amplification duties.....you have a hugely overbuilt power supply now only left with pre-amplification and tuning duties.

What type of cost could you receive on your casework alone if you ordered in the tens of thousands, and not dozens from your supplier of this casework?  How much less would your rca jacks and PCB boards be ordered in the same hundreds of thousands in volume?  Dramatically less if the answer     

Again, the power supply in this receiver is sufficient to push 100 watts per channel - surely it's overbuilt as a preamp and tuner power supply.  Some degree of linearity must be present in any mass produced product to pass UL certification, and testing that is often done in one of three testing labs in Hong Kong.  Further, every manufacturer offers an extensive warranty on new items - more assurance of a reasable degree of efficacy in the design.

As a result, you will get bass power and a lower noise level than any similarly produced tube preamp anywhere near it's price. That be no means means you have reached the pinnacle of audio nirvana, but you most likely have improved upon your current component choices.  It is a very sensible choice for a preamp AND tuner to explore given this.

All for $599...with a full functioning remote control on-off, volume and tuner up/down functions. 

 

[ohenry]

http://www.angelfire.com/biz/bizzyb/DENON.html

SS preamp with tube amp...anybody else successfully done this out there?

I've mated a modified Purist (replaced the four .47uF caps with Mundorf silver) with a 45PP and two EL-84 amps and have enjoyed the result each time.  I haven't heard a similarly priced tube preamp that I like better.  Don't get hamstrung by audio "rules".

[TheChairGuy]

I try not to, Henry 

A great and quiet preamp that Purist is....I owned it for a time.  Certainly, well priced for all you get.