Do I need a preamp now?

[Kannan]

Hi Kannan, I had to buy the MSB proprietary volume control. Below is a link on stepped up attenuators . Hope it proves useful.

https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&s...s.html&usg=AFQjCNGV_8TQWO1R63JpADIKlMcQnqhydQ

Cheers!
Anand

Thanks. The DACT is already on my list. SMD's are supposed to be good.

 

[rbalagopalan]

IMO pre amp is a must in chain.

You can try building one with slagle transformer autoformers www. Intactaudio.com. This should be good. My friend in US has built one and he felt it's good. Still to say no match to Carry Audio SLP98 pre which he is using and which I also have.

In case you need I can get you the schematic s of the Slagel build.

 

[Kannan]

Received the 6J1 based tube buffer preamp today.

Just as I had expected, the 6J1 is a tad bright, midrange (especially vocals) are over powered by treble notes. I am not sure burn-in is going to improve by much.
Even bass is a tad muddy and undefined.

But I am not bothered as the preamp build quality is awesome for its price and I have the option of rolling the tubes..

I have already ordered matched pairs of Voshkod 6ZH1P-EV and Philips/GE JAN5654W/6AK5W tubes. These have very good reviews.
I am also in the hunt for the Mullard 8100 but not able to find a good deal.

The replacement tubes should be with me in 2/3 weeks time, and I hope they reach safely and without damage.

 

[drkrack]

Received the 6J1 based tube buffer preamp today.

Just as I had expected, the 6J1 is a tad bright, midrange (especially vocals) are over powered by treble notes. I am not sure burn-in is going to improve by much.
Even bass is a tad muddy and undefined.

But I am not bothered as the preamp build quality is awesome for its price and I have the option of rolling the tubes..

I have already ordered matched pairs of Voshkod 6ZH1P-EV and Philips/GE JAN5654W/6AK5W tubes. These have very good reviews.
I am also in the hunt for the Mullard 8100 but not able to find a good deal.

The replacement tubes should be with me in 2/3 weeks time, and I hope they reach safely and without damage.

I'm pretty happy with the 6j1 as of now, from my experience Burn in will make a lot of difference, since my 6j1 based tube preamp is discontinued, I don't know what's the difference with your preamp.

Though I'm loving the experience with stock tubes ; I'm not averse to rolling better tubes. Can you share the buying links for the replacement tubes ordered by you?

Sent from my Redmi Note 3 using Tapatalk

 

[Kannan]

I'm pretty happy with the 6j1 as of now, from my experience Burn in will make a lot of difference, since my 6j1 based tube preamp is discontinued, I don't know what's the difference with your preamp.

Though I'm loving the experience with stock tubes ; I'm not averse to rolling better tubes. Can you share the buying links for the replacement tubes ordered by you?

Sent from my Redmi Note 3 using Tapatalk

I will let it burn for 50 odd hours to see if anything improves, but from what I have heard from a few friends spread globally, I am not very hopeful with the 6J1.

I will PM the links, but I suggest you wait for a couple of weeks. Let me receive them and test and share my opinion.

Cheers
Kannan

 

[drkrack]

I will let it burn for 50 odd hours to see if anything improves, but from what I have heard from a few friends spread globally, I am not very hopeful with the 6J1.

I will PM the links, but I suggest you wait for a couple of weeks. Let me receive them and test and share my opinion.

Cheers
Kannan

Please send the links anyways, I'm not in a hurry to buy.

This is the link for our experience with 6j1 and stock tubes

http://www.hifivision.com/showthread.php?p=742695

Sent from my Redmi Note 3 using Tapatalk

 

[Lazer]

Hi friends,

Unlike the yore, modern sources have good power in their low level output to drive a power amp or a pair of active speakers.

It includes media players, CD/DVD/bluray players and also DACs.
Some of these DACs also come with a variable digital volume control or a built-in preamp with analogue volume control. But the implementation of the preamp leaves a lot to be desired.

Most PC software like JRIver or foobar and more provide a bit perfect volume control to control the output form the DACs to the poweramp. SO in that way, preamps have in a way become redundant.

But the big question is how is the sound quality without a preamp in-between.

Two days back I had the pleasure of listening to a high-end setup which included Rockna DAC connected to a Siltech tube linestage preamp, a couple of Nagra monoblock amplifier and speakers.
Since Rockna recommends not to use a preamp with their DAC, we also listened after removing the preamp.
There was no difference in detail.
With the preamp, the background was darker and the sound was more organic and sweeter.
Without the preamp, the sound was that much more digital, and a wee bit dry.
This is one of the best DACs in the market today and also the pre is one of the best one can get their hands on.

There is no preamp in my setup now, the DAC is directly powering the power amp.

So the question is of adding a preamplifier
But since my DAC has a good output, the overall system has good power to driver the speakers.
So I feel there is no point in adding an active preamp as it will likely increase the noise floor, but instead go ahead with a passive preamp.

Coming to passive preamps, we have resister based attenuation preamp, transformer based attenuaters (TVC) and tube based preamps.

The question is which is the better of the three?

My power amp has a relatively low impedance of 8.5k ohms

Please share your opinions.

Hi,
My friend is using the EAR active preamp and the balance of sound is perfect.So it is my suggestion to an active preamp with such features that can control the hi,mid and low frequency.

 

[heliumflight]

I am using an Asus Xonar sound card and directly fed into power amp.

I had done this arrangement a while back. Used JRiver extensively but felt most of the time I was tweaking the settings. Now I use CA- Cxn.

HiFi Rig: Cambridge Audio Cxn + Musical Fidelity X10 V3 + Quad 405 MK2 + Piega Classic 3.0