Joined
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11,144 Posts
OK, I try not to get too caught up in audiophile madness, crazy tweaks, or esoteric gear. I try to walk a balanced line between well-built, good-sounding gear and the law of diminishing returns. In other words, I'm not looking to start a revolution or stray too far outside the box; I have the tried-and-true things that sound good to me, and that's pretty much good enough.
That being said, let me ask you this: in my Office 2-channel system, I bounce back and forth between decent Integrateds and decent separates. However, as my AVS title indicates, I am 99.9% discless and digital, so my only source is a Squeezebox Duet into an external DAC. In my situation what does a Pre-Amp in the signal-path really get me? I guess my question, and this might be the ridiculous part, is...what does a Pre really do for you other than volume control and source switching (excluding a phono section)?
Well in the past, I've heard people talking about going out of CD players with volume controls, directly into Power Amps and describe the results as "magical"; to me, that's audiophile-speak, but I have to imagine it means something good...lol. Like I said, I'm no purist kook, but I can certainly get behind the argument that, in general, less is more; as in fewer steps in the signal path.
I've never tried it myself, I guess because I never felt the analog section from a mid-price CD player was "good" enough to go directly to the Power Amp, but I don't feel that way about the signal coming directly out of my DAC. And since the Duet has volume control, there's no reason it shouldn't work. I guess the real answer is to try it for myself, and trust my ears...and I will...but obviously it'll be impossible to really do a true a/b; so I was just wondering if my fellow AVS audio enthusiasts had some thoughts?
CD
That being said, let me ask you this: in my Office 2-channel system, I bounce back and forth between decent Integrateds and decent separates. However, as my AVS title indicates, I am 99.9% discless and digital, so my only source is a Squeezebox Duet into an external DAC. In my situation what does a Pre-Amp in the signal-path really get me? I guess my question, and this might be the ridiculous part, is...what does a Pre really do for you other than volume control and source switching (excluding a phono section)?
Well in the past, I've heard people talking about going out of CD players with volume controls, directly into Power Amps and describe the results as "magical"; to me, that's audiophile-speak, but I have to imagine it means something good...lol. Like I said, I'm no purist kook, but I can certainly get behind the argument that, in general, less is more; as in fewer steps in the signal path.
I've never tried it myself, I guess because I never felt the analog section from a mid-price CD player was "good" enough to go directly to the Power Amp, but I don't feel that way about the signal coming directly out of my DAC. And since the Duet has volume control, there's no reason it shouldn't work. I guess the real answer is to try it for myself, and trust my ears...and I will...but obviously it'll be impossible to really do a true a/b; so I was just wondering if my fellow AVS audio enthusiasts had some thoughts?
CD