There is a post from @chris mielke in the ba-3 thread that talks about too much gain from the ba-3. My question is, how does too much or too little gain affect the sound? Does it mean the sound coming out of the speakers has too much influence from the source and pre-amp and not enough from the amp? Or is it just as simple as the amp cannot offer the power it has and it doesn‘t have anything to do with the actual sound?
You want the preamp to have enough output on your lowest output source to drive the power amplifier to its full output.
If the preamp has too much gain, the preamp could clip on a "hot" source and cause distortion.
If the preamp has too little gain, the preamp could have excessive noise on a "weak" source.
If the preamp has too much gain, the preamp could clip on a "hot" source and cause distortion.
If the preamp has too little gain, the preamp could have excessive noise on a "weak" source.
If it has too little gain the weak source won't be able to drive the power amp to full level, surely. Adding more gain shouldn't affect the noise level much as that's set by the input stage of the preamp (i.e. before the gain). In fact having too little gain will reduce the noise at the output as well as the signal.
This is why an active volume control as part of the preamp is such a great idea, it can provide as much gain (or attenuation) as needed without losing headroom.
This is why an active volume control as part of the preamp is such a great idea, it can provide as much gain (or attenuation) as needed without losing headroom.