Digital or Analog PreAmp

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BikeWNC

Digital or Analog PreAmp
« on: 23 Jan 2003, 04:56 pm »
I'll be taking part in a Dac shootout next weekend in which the host has a Tact digital preamp.  Is this the way it will be in the future, the end of analog preamps?  What are the pros and cons of a digital pre?  Has anyone made the comparison?  Room correction seems like an obvious advantage to me.  To be able to cut down on some types of acoustical treatments would definitely increase the WAF.   What do you think?

nathanm

Digital or Analog PreAmp
« Reply #1 on: 23 Jan 2003, 05:28 pm »
Can't cheat the laws of physics, bend 'em maybe, but not cheat 'em.  Sound is still gona bounce around your room regardless.

Don't get me wrong, room correction is a very interesting bit of technology, but I look at it the same way I look at computer monitor calibration; you can stick an instrument on there and measure the light and the color of it, and the tool can tell you what IT thinks is the best adjustment, but invariably it has always looked "wrong" to me.  There's a time and place for exacting measurements, but to me a little microphone does not hear sounds the way my ears do.  Everything should have a 'manual override'!   I haven't used the Tact which is much more expensive, but I've used the Behringer digital EQ and it was just too damn futzy.  Digital EQ with parametric KNOB controls on the other hand...that would be cool!  It was more fiddling than I felt was worth it, I'm sure others might have better luck.

I must say it is nice to see a plot of the frequency response; it gives you a visual correlation between what you're hearing and what it looks like on a graph.