A/V Preamp For Stereo Music (Long rant)

Posted by mr.bear (A) on June 28, 2015 at 13:08:34

Space constraints mandate that my main music listening system accommodate my preferred analog sources (turntable, FM tuner, cassette deck) and music-only digital sources (CD player, computer audio) in the same spot as the following: DVD player, TV sound, Laser Disc player, and VHS deck.

It seems essential to have a center speaker to make movie and TV dialog comprehensible. My venerable Thiel CS3 front speakers (without the electronic bass equalizer, crossed over to a JMLabs subwoofer) have been augmented with a Boston Acoustics center channel speaker. (The Thiels image well but a clear, good-sounding center like the BA really improves dialog comprehension, at modest listening levels.)

Recently my old A/V preamplifier went into a death-spiral and a bout of upgrade-itis overcame my better judgement. I replaced my old Proceed AVP-1 with a newer Lexicon MC-12. I use it, as before, in 2-channel mode with the on-board ADC/DAC to provide the crossover for the subwoofer. Previous experience with well-engineered digital equipment suggested that the up/down/up conversion taking place on the same circuit board creates only the most minor digital artifacts, compared to listening to analog sources directly through my analog preamp.

The Lexicon MC-12 preamplifier's back panel must have over 50 jacks. My system has actually managed to fill around 30! A rough count in the preamp GUI, a tree-branch affair of inputs, individual modes for that input, settings and level adjustments for each mode yields 200 or more possible combinations. Superimposed on that are dozens of overall audio adjustments. Until I played with these for weeks, it was much easier to get cacophony than decent sound in the very few listening modes I wanted to use- for example listening to TV movies or decoding Dolby Digital DVD soundtracks. I am at an uneasy peace with this confusion now and both music and soundtracks sound pretty darn good.

Music through the Lexicon is just "pretty darn good;" it was better through the old Proceed- smoother, warmer, more relaxed. The only possible way to listen to music critically on this beast is in "2 CHANNEL" mode which has everything programmed for absolute flat settings and zero DSP sound-effects. The sound is a little zippy but that is likely due to my current amp/speaker susceptibility to zippiness more than anything. I can listen for hours without fatigue and just get lost in musicville. I miss the Proceed but I need all those zillion jacks. The control features work flawlessly and make life easy. No unplugging and fidgeting to record the soundtrack of a LaserDisc to a cassette (or any other weird thing). The fine build quality, great appearance and outstanding remote control are cool, no doubt!

There remain almost unlimited "enhancements" on-tap and some are even useful. For example, internet streaming seems to sound a bit better using the Lexicon proprietary "Logic7- Music" mode. From the Harman/Lexicon whitepaper on Logic7 it appears it reads all sorts of spatial cues, derives a complex set of artificial signals, and deploys them via the center channel and to alter the image of the L&R speakers. The effect is to soften the image somewhat but it makes it sound "more analog" in that certain digital artifacts are less noticeable. All the enhancements seem mostly to mess with the image, the tonal quality remains pretty darn good across the board.

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Topic - A/V Preamp For Stereo Music (Long rant) - mr.bear 13:08:34 06/28/15 (22)

RE: A/V Preamp For Stereo Music (Long rant) - fantja 07:52:32 07/02/15 (1)

Once you solve your biggest problem you have just promoted Number 2 - mcbuddah 11:28:30 07/02/15 (0)

RE: A/V Preamp For Stereo Music (Long rant) - jsm71 04:06:43 07/01/15 (2)

RE: A/V Preamp For Stereo Music (Long rant) - mr.bear 00:17:57 07/06/15 (0)

RE: A/V Preamp For Stereo Music (Long rant) - dbphd 10:25:38 07/01/15 (0)

RE: A/V Preamp For Stereo Music (Long rant) - jsm71 13:32:50 06/30/15 (0)

RE: A/V Preamp For Stereo Music (Long rant) - daleda 07:59:13 06/29/15 (5)

Ditto -nt - E-Stat 12:17:12 06/29/15 (0)

Real issue - unclestu 11:54:02 06/29/15 (3)

RE: That's true but - mr.bear 09:20:33 06/30/15 (2)

There are processors that bypass all signal processing for two channel analog inputs - JoshT 06:43:31 07/02/15 (1)

There are processors that bypass all signal processing for multichannel analog inputs - Kal Rubinson 17:19:12 07/02/15 (0)

RE: A/V Preamp For Stereo Music (Long rant) - AbeCollins 20:20:14 06/28/15 (9)

RE: A/V Preamp For Stereo Music (Long rant) - JoshT 06:38:27 07/02/15 (1)

RE: A/V Preamp For Stereo Music (Long rant) - AbeCollins 00:53:09 07/03/15 (0)

Amen. - Kal Rubinson 06:45:37 06/29/15 (2)

How about the Krell Foundation? - JoshT 06:34:03 07/02/15 (1)

RE: How about the Krell Foundation? - Kal Rubinson 17:17:56 07/02/15 (0)

RE: A/V Preamp For Stereo Music (Long rant) - murali 05:49:50 06/29/15 (0)

RE: A/V Preamp For Stereo Music (Long rant) - three_sox 23:04:45 06/28/15 (2)

A recent demo I tried - DrChaos 11:11:20 06/29/15 (0)

RE: A/V Preamp For Stereo Music (Long rant) - G Squared 05:44:18 06/29/15 (0)

A/V Preamp For Stereo Music (Long rant)

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