T-amp as preamp

[cukkurullo]

Hi Mates,

did anybody try the t-amp as a preamp? Any suggestions comment? Do you think could be a good idea?

Thanks,
pierre

[Pano]

T-amp as a preamp????

Not sure what you mean. Why? How?

[Saturnus]

I can only restate the question asked above. Why? WHY?

[cukkurullo]

Why? Well, just to try! The T-amp has orrible bass response unless you use high efficiency speakers. I am a solid state guy with 85db speakers (three way, 12",6",1").

But I still like the sweet the t-amp can reproduce at high midlle-frequencies, so I thought why do not try to use this very hifi amp as a preamp. I don't think amps are the weak item in the the chain, well at least with my very neutral amps. My exoerience is that after the source and speakers the thing which really change your sound is the preamp. I love the counterpoint SA-300 but with line stage it is horrible. I am still looking for sweet and punchy sound and it seems that I have not found it yet.

Well as I said in principle I like the t-amp above the 200Hz and I still miss punch with it. So I thought what about this chip as pre stage? I tried and it seems to work. I also tried to make the t-amp driving a passive RIAA as phono preamp... it is very good.

Of course you cannot go with the volume too loud otherwise it will kill you! But I think it micht be that a simple attenuation will do the job. Now my solid state amp sounds with all the strenghts of the tubes on solid state without having their problems! I am very happy but I think it can be improved.

Yes, I think things can be improved a lot by anyone more expert than me, at the end I am not into elettronics as the most part of you out there.

It was just a trial, I think the outcome was very good. My message was to compare a my experience with others, but I see nobody tried!

Pierre

[3-LockBox]

Well as I said in principle I like the t-amp above the 200Hz and I still miss punch with it. So I thought what about this chip as pre stage? I tried and it seems to work. I also tried to make the t-amp driving a passive RIAA as phono preamp... it is very good.

Pierre [/B]

I'm by no means an electronic expert. But I'm having some difficulty picturing how you "made the T-amp into a pre-amp".


Could you be more specific? Where and how did you hook it up to another solid state amp?

[cukkurullo]

where? At home.

How? Take the output of the t-amp and make it an input to the amp.

bye
Cukkurullo

[Pano]

Wow, what you are doing is soooo wrong. It almost like taking a big QSC amp and using it as a preamp, or McIntosh 275. Cart before the horse? Crazy noise and wacky frequency response? Not to mention the ground problem. How does that work?

But hey, if it sounds good to you, great! I never would have tried it, but I woldn't have tried a sonic Impact either, if it hadn't been written about here.

A class-D H-bridge preamp. Hmm....

Audio is a weird thing....

[sx881663]

I posted earlier today on this but the post is missing? I must have pushed the wrong button so will have to do it over, oh well!
The problem of implementing the Tamp as a preamp is not simple as it would seem. The Tamp is a balanced circuit and as such would be only properly suited to driving balanced loads. If you try to only use one output for single ended it may work but I would think the noise and distortion would go way up. The outputs are designed to drive significant current into a low impedance load and if they are run open all bets are off. You would have to supply some kind of nominal load like 8-16 ohms for the output filter to work any way close to normal. The chance is there to greatly improve the filtering as very little current would be used if the load were removed, this could be investigated.
The other not so easy to deal with problem is all the noise on the output. I would think all the low level stuff would be lost. This sounds like a bad idea all around!
If all you want is to sweeten up the sound a tube pre would do good service here, a lot more practical.
Roger

[Bgt]

better, no electronics at all(for the preamp)