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In Reply to: RE: With modern sources putting out 2.5v why do I need a preamp posted by airtime on August 13, 2016 at 07:40:40
I confess that I was firmly in the passive attenuator camp at that time.
Now I get the value of having a good active in the ways that Charles suggests.
Charles Hansen on active preamps
I, do, however still go direct from Squeezebox Touch player to Crown amp in garage system which works OK there.
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Kind of like do you want that ice cream with toppings or not.
I like the clarity and razor edge of passives. But at times it gets fatiguing and you just want soft sweet "music".
I find preamps sweeten the sound. As many before me have said "sometimes distortion is a good thing".
I find preamps sweeten the sound.
I can easily understand that perception using the C-J as they tend to have a "caramel" sort of tonal balance. Even the vaunted ART I used to hear at Sea Cliff.
I don't, however, find that an Audio Research SP20 "sweetens" the signal. It is a hybrid using JFETs and 6H30 tubes with an ultra stiff power supply (more energy than a VTA ST-70) and balanced operation.
I don't, however, find that an Audio Research SP20 "sweetens" the signal. It is a hybrid using JFETs and 6H30 tubes with an ultra stiff power supply (more energy than a VTA ST-70) and balanced operation.
The Citation 1 preamp was the same way in that it had a bigger power trafo and more capacitance in the power supply than many tube amps of the day. To be fair tho,most people beef up the power supply in the VTA amps which is easy to do.
"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong" H. L. Mencken
To be fair tho,most people beef up the power supply in the VTA amps which is easy to do.
OTOH, I'm not convinced AT has done the same with his choice of preamps. :)
BTW, how many joules are found in your Sherwood amp mod?
I'm not sure what AT is using for a preamp..He does mention a CJ. Preamps many times have way more supply than is needed..Remember back in the 70s and 80s,it wasn't unusual to shut off a preamp and have it play for a minute or two until it bled itself down.This was with bleeder resistors on them as well.
As far as the Sherwood goes,I use film caps in two very critical places..I then use lytics downstream and they are two and a half times the original value but being the charging cap went from being a 20uf lytic to a 35uf film,that sets the stage for the massive improvement especially in the bass and lower mids.Power supply capacitance is cheap to get that many companies over do their power supplies with filtering thinking it's a selling point..Cary is a great example of this.I use more expensive film caps because of the quality of the cap and its efficiency as opposed to a lytic.
"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong" H. L. Mencken
I'm not sure what AT is using for a preamp.Check his profile for answer.
CJ. Preamps many times have way more supply than is needed..
We have different points of reference. The Classic 2 SE doesn't look particularly impressive to me. Standard trannie and two small caps and a silver mica(?) bypass?
Power supply capacitance is cheap to get that many companies over do their power supplies with filtering thinking it's a selling point..
Once again, my experience is that PS stiffness really counts. Adding up what appear to be five different rails of the Sherwood integrated, the total from the schematic appears to be just under 22 joules. The same as my SP20 preamp (940 uF @ 220V)
use more expensive film caps because of the quality of the cap and its efficiency as opposed to a lytic.
Makes perfect sense for audio coupling caps. Major manufacturers today, however, use electrolytics for primary PS storage and bypass them with WIMA, WonderCap, etc. films. And use R-core trannies.
Edits: 08/15/16
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