Hectors House Posted September 2 Share Posted September 2 Hello I'm looking to gain some views on whether to change my current setup.. I've got an Aurender N100 going into a LAB12 DAC and currently using an old Passive preamp - feeding a SVS S200 Sub and into a pair of ATC SCM20A's. I'm weighing up whether to replace the old passive with a better quality passive or whether to change to an active preamp instead. Any views or recommendations on a suitable preamp would be welcome. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
georgehifi Posted September 2 Share Posted September 2 (edited) The combined input impedances of the SVS and the ATC's is too low for a passive pre to handle, especially then with a tube output dac driving the passive/svs/ATC's combined impedances, NOPE!, you need either a buffered passive or an active preamp. with >33kohm input impedance and < 100ohm output impedance. Cheers George Edited September 2 by georgehifi 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
POV Posted September 2 Share Posted September 2 (edited) Active every time. And with sub integration you could consider a pre that enables this with effective DSP. I recommend DIRAC. What’s your budget? Edited September 2 by POV Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyr Posted September 2 Share Posted September 2 45 minutes ago, POV said: Active every time. ^ ^ ^ What the man sez @Hectors House! Particularly as the pre is feeding a sub amp, as well as the power amp. And find a pre which offers 2 pairs of outputs - one to power amp the other for sub(s). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hectors House Posted September 3 Author Share Posted September 3 Thanks for your feedback and comments. My budget is around $5000 and I've been looking at the SPL Elector, the LAB12 Ref1 and the Fezz Sagita As always, happy to read reviews if you have particular suggestions.... Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pops110 Posted September 3 Share Posted September 3 This would match your Dac and sound a hell of a lot better than a passive pre. IMHO 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hectors House Posted September 3 Author Share Posted September 3 Thanks Pop110..... I'll bear that in mind Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
georgehifi Posted September 3 Share Posted September 3 (edited) @Hectors House The ATC's are 10kohm input impedance, the SVS sub I can't find but Class-D plate amps are usually 10kohms also, these two paralleled are going to present a load of 5kohms to the output of whatever pre is used, tube pre's don't generally like to be loaded down to 5kohms, they like to see 33kohm or higher, especially driving many meters of interconnect. It needs to be a solid state pre, and also to be solid state if you want "true" balanced output. Cheers George Edited September 3 by georgehifi 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stereo coffee Posted September 3 Share Posted September 3 Think though with no adverse loading with a passive, the source, will see 5k ohms, which is not excessive at all. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter 0 C Posted September 6 Share Posted September 6 I have tried both extensively with both valve and ss power amplifiers. An immediate problem with passive preamps with either a conventional e.g. ALPS 'wiper' pot or switchable resistor arrays is that the output impedance changes when the pot is rotated. This is not a problem for Transformer Volume Controls (TVCs) which are more expensive. Whilst TVC passive has a sweet midrange and treble it is not suited to complex music and quite often (even with a switchable 6db boost) runs out of drive. My preference is for a valve preamp which especially if you are using a s-s power amp, injects a bit of front to back flavour. I haven't found LDR preamps to be at all musical. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ukrop Posted September 12 Share Posted September 12 (edited) del. Edited September 12 by Ukrop mistake Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ukrop Posted September 12 Share Posted September 12 Just now, Ukrop said: The passive preamp has several disadvantages that can be easily eliminated by introducing an amplification stage. But it will already be an active preamp. In the photo you can see several models of preamps that combine several options: an autotransformer volume control with 30 positions, a tube amplifier with an output transformer, two outputs, remote control. Options that the user can order are tone control, RIAA preamp, number of inputs, additional manual control and others. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattyW Posted September 26 Share Posted September 26 (edited) My experience has been that which one is best primarily comes down to your listening levels. If you listen as low to extremely low listening levels then it is extremely hard to beat Slagleformer based attenuation.... If you like it a bit louder however then resistor ladder based actives can be extremely compelling also. I actually reduce my line level by 6db before feeding my active pre as I listen as extremely low levels as my wife is sensitive to peaks in the sound. No way am I going to normalise my music though Edited September 26 by MattyW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hectors House Posted October 2 Author Share Posted October 2 Thanks for all of the comments. I ended up purchasing an SPL Elector preamp. Awesome results. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stereo coffee Posted October 2 Share Posted October 2 1 hour ago, Hectors House said: Thanks for all of the comments. I ended up purchasing an SPL Elector preamp. Awesome results. That's a great subjective result. Here are the objective results, Just look at the available bandwidth ! @sir sanders zingmore Frequency response: 10Hz to 200kHz Total harmonic distortion: 0.00992% Signal to noise ratio: 102.5dB (line) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Volunteer sir sanders zingmore Posted October 2 Volunteer Share Posted October 2 4 hours ago, stereo coffee said: That's a great subjective result. Here are the objective results, Just look at the available bandwidth ! @sir sanders zingmore Frequency response: 10Hz to 200kHz Total harmonic distortion: 0.00992% Signal to noise ratio: 102.5dB (line) Unsure why you’ve tagged me in your post? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stereo coffee Posted October 2 Share Posted October 2 26 minutes ago, sir sanders zingmore said: Unsure why you’ve tagged me in your post? It is showing a beneficial advantage to have equipment capable beyond 20khz., 7 hours ago, Hectors House said: Thanks for all of the comments. I ended up purchasing an SPL Elector preamp. Awesome results. as the subjective appraisal above shows Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Volunteer sir sanders zingmore Posted October 2 Volunteer Share Posted October 2 7 hours ago, stereo coffee said: It is showing a beneficial advantage to have equipment capable beyond 20khz., as the subjective appraisal above shows Not biting sorry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stereo coffee Posted October 2 Share Posted October 2 49 minutes ago, sir sanders zingmore said: Not biting sorry No worries I will bookmark, to remind the next time. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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