stupid question of the day

[cjkpkg]

I am building the Aikido preamp. This will feed a SimpleSE that I built.

I also want a phono stage which I will eventually build. I would like to integrate it into the chassis for the Aikido. So, my question is, do I process the output of the phono stage through the Aikido preamp? OR does the output of the phono stage go directly to the power amp?

I tried to search this one and found no direct answer.

Thanks
Carl

 

[SY]

Generally, you'd run the phono stage through the line amp, too. You'll need to be able to control volume and switch sources, which is the function of the line amp.

 

[whitelabrat]

I think you'll find that the Simple SE provides plenty of gain to do without a preamp stage. I used an LiteAudio ls7b pre attached the Simple and it just was way too much gain. To each their own though right?

In my case I just use a stepped attenuator with a channel selector which works great. My phono amp could probably use a bit of help, but it does fine without the preamp. I could possible use a preamp, but I would want to have a fixed attenuator to cool off the hot signal coming from the ls7b.

To contrast, I have a Marantz 8b and Diytube ST35 amps that seem to like the preamp, but they can get by without it as well.