roachy Posted June 5, 2008 Posted June 5, 2008 Hi all, First of all I'm very excited as I've made my first serious positive step towards 2 channel nirvana. I've bought myself an Audio Research LS16 Tube preamp. Its currently in the post and I can't wait. My question is about the 'unity gain' HT bypass. As I understand it unity gain is the equivalent of a normal input but having a fixed volume so my HT receiver controls the volume of what is being played through it. I understand that this means having to have the preamp on at all times when using my system, therefore reducing the life on the tubes etc. What I'm not sure is, does this mean that anything played through the HT bypass will also pass through the tubes and add it's flavour to the sound? For example, at the moment my SACD playback involves using my Oppo DVD player, outputting DSD via HDMI to my Onkyo receiver. Will this therefore help with the overall perceived quality of sound of such SACDs. I understand that it is still going through the Onkyo's pre stage but the tubes should surely help out refining the sound a bit yeah? Anyway once I've got it all set up I'll post some impressions of the preamp. I've got reasonably high expectations given that I've only ever used my HT receiver as a preamp in the past. For now I'll be using my NAD C542 CD player into the preamp, into my Elektra Theatre, bi-amped to my Definitive Technology mains. Thanks for your input.
betty boop Posted June 5, 2008 Posted June 5, 2008 Hi all,First of all I'm very excited as I've made my first serious positive step towards 2 channel nirvana. I've bought myself an Audio Research LS16 Tube preamp. Its currently in the post and I can't wait. My question is about the 'unity gain' HT bypass. As I understand it unity gain is the equivalent of a normal input but having a fixed volume so my HT receiver controls the volume of what is being played through it. I understand that this means having to have the preamp on at all times when using my system, therefore reducing the life on the tubes etc. What I'm not sure is, does this mean that anything played through the HT bypass will also pass through the tubes and add it's flavour to the sound? For example, at the moment my SACD playback involves using my Oppo DVD player, outputting DSD via HDMI to my Onkyo receiver. Will this therefore help with the overall perceived quality of sound of such SACDs. I understand that it is still going through the Onkyo's pre stage but the tubes should surely help out refining the sound a bit yeah? Anyway once I've got it all set up I'll post some impressions of the preamp. I've got reasonably high expectations given that I've only ever used my HT receiver as a preamp in the past. For now I'll be using my NAD C542 CD player into the preamp, into my Elektra Theatre, bi-amped to my Definitive Technology mains. Thanks for your input. well congratualtions roachy ! on the lovely audio research pre ! very nice pick up ! it will be somthing that will last many a year providing a lot of joy in regards the audio research pre's they do need to be left on for the htbypass to be active. ie they dont have a pssive bypass as some brands have employed. on the other hand the tubes they utilise in the ARC pres are relatively inexpensive and easily got and plus being used in a pre with a life of around 5000-10,000 hours unlike tube power amps for instance where 500hrs or so would be about what to expect. All comes down to how much the tubes are pushed in pre's typically they arent pushed a lot at all. in regards colouration, even if the tubes are employed in circuit, think you'll find the audio research pre's are about as clean and neutral as they come. I have an audio research phono pre and can tell you from what I've experienced of it and other ARC pre's is theres no valve bloom or overtly warm fuzzy romantic tubey valve sound youd associate with valve gear. so in essence with your ht signal driving through it wiht the pre in the path I'd be very suprised if you will detect any overall change to the charecter of the sound. inregards the oppo player going through your integra and then onto the arc pre, I somehow doubt the arc will add anything at all and certainly probably not remove or impact on the sound I'd think. either way why dont you do a comaprison yourself. try both ways and report back what you find Do post your views, I'm a pretty big fan of the audio research pre's infact think they make some of the best pre's around ! look forward to how you find it with the elektra and nad as source
roachy Posted June 5, 2008 Author Posted June 5, 2008 Thanks for that Al. Exactly the sort of response I was after. Will definately keep in touch with my findings. Only thing is this weekend is going to kill me. I'm expecting it to arrive tomorrow (today now!) but am going away for the long weekend so prob won't get a chance to set it up till after work tues night.
joz Posted June 9, 2008 Posted June 9, 2008 (edited) Congratulations on the purchase Roachy.I believe it'll be an outstanding pre. haha!,I notice you pouncing on a few deals about town it seems,good on you. Edited June 9, 2008 by the joz
roachy Posted June 10, 2008 Author Posted June 10, 2008 Thanks Joz, I think it all started last year when I bought your M&K subbie, or maybe it was JohnA's Elektra first. Cant remember now. But their's definitely some good value to be had in the second hand market. Anyway really looking forward to hooking up the pre as I've only ever used a HT receiver before in my system. It actually arrived today but I might not have enough time today to setup and install as I have a fair bit of component shuffling to do in my rack. Will post some impressions once all set up.
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