Are pre-amps becoming obsolete (if you don't listen to vinyl)?
Most of my music is mp3's played on my Mac through my tri-amp system. While I was researching DAC's, I was emailing back and forth with John Seaber about his Standalone ODAC when I mentioned I was using separate pre/power amps and an active crossover. He suggested sending the DAC right into the crossover and not even using my preamp anymore. Signal levels out of just about any DAC, and laptops' headphone line seem almost up to what my Marantz 3300 preamp can put out, and about the same if not greater than a modern preamps' output. If I need tone shaping, I can use the equalizer in iTunes, and if I went with Pure Music mp3 player software, there are more elaborate EQ plug-ins available.
I did a bit of testing with my Mac right into my crossover, but I miss using physical knobs on my Marantz's pre-amp to mess with volume, balance, bass, treble etc. However, I have three pre-amps here laying around, and if I sold a couple or all of them, that would free up lots of cash to buy other stuff.......like more audio gadgets, tubes, etc., etc....
Most of my music is mp3's played on my Mac through my tri-amp system. While I was researching DAC's, I was emailing back and forth with John Seaber about his Standalone ODAC when I mentioned I was using separate pre/power amps and an active crossover. He suggested sending the DAC right into the crossover and not even using my preamp anymore. Signal levels out of just about any DAC, and laptops' headphone line seem almost up to what my Marantz 3300 preamp can put out, and about the same if not greater than a modern preamps' output. If I need tone shaping, I can use the equalizer in iTunes, and if I went with Pure Music mp3 player software, there are more elaborate EQ plug-ins available.
I did a bit of testing with my Mac right into my crossover, but I miss using physical knobs on my Marantz's pre-amp to mess with volume, balance, bass, treble etc. However, I have three pre-amps here laying around, and if I sold a couple or all of them, that would free up lots of cash to buy other stuff.......like more audio gadgets, tubes, etc., etc....
It's simple - you need a gadget that reads potentiometer values (with pots on front panels labeled volume, balance, bass, midrange, treble...) and feeds them to your EQ software. It could surely be powered and send data over a USB connection.
It's like audio production nowadays - you can have a "mixer" on the computer screen you control with the keyboard and mouse that operates an internal software mixer, or you can get a physical device with slide pots that sends slider position values in MIDI over USB.
It's like audio production nowadays - you can have a "mixer" on the computer screen you control with the keyboard and mouse that operates an internal software mixer, or you can get a physical device with slide pots that sends slider position values in MIDI over USB.
When someone asks on here about preamps my usual advice is that most systems do not need one. Exceptions are:
- when a turntable is used
- when cables are really long
- when the source or the power amp have significantly high/low and non-linear output/input impedance (respectively)
- when the user want some knobs to twiddle
- when the user really wants an FX box but won't admit it
- when a turntable is used
- when cables are really long
- when the source or the power amp have significantly high/low and non-linear output/input impedance (respectively)
- when the user want some knobs to twiddle
- when the user really wants an FX box but won't admit it
You could do the crossover in software too and get rid of that if the Mac is your only source (I assume you can add more DACs to a Mac). I'm currently building a crossover that will drive the speakers directly by adding a current buffer to the last opamp in the crossover. So no power amp, but my source isn't just a computer.
It's all food for thought,
Brian.
It's all food for thought,
Brian.
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