^ 
One cannot look to past learnings while on the journey toward The Pumpkin as cause to mourn. Each has their own path toward discovery. It is not The Pumpkin that offers fulfillment; it is the hard-won experience and wisdom gained that keeps the heart warm.
OH... BS! Who am I trying to kid? It's the Pumpkin that brings the joy. I wish I'd had the guts to build it years ago.
One cannot look to past learnings while on the journey toward The Pumpkin as cause to mourn. Each has their own path toward discovery. It is not The Pumpkin that offers fulfillment; it is the hard-won experience and wisdom gained that keeps the heart warm.
OH... BS! Who am I trying to kid? It's the Pumpkin that brings the joy. I wish I'd had the guts to build it years ago.
The reason I ask…the only experience I have with unity gain is the B1 (my first diy “preamp”). After that I built the BA-3 as preamp which absolutely kicked the B1’s *ss in my opinion and in my system with the music I listen to. Every preamp I’ve built or purchased since have had various amounts of gain. There was seemingly no need for more gain at the time I swapped in the BA-3, but it sure gave my system more “drive” and the sound was much more “dynamic”. Any thoughts?
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I wasn't aware of any balance that might be had concerning the gain of preamp until I owned one with too much. That is also when I noticed some differences in drive or maybe fullness and other differences that made me wonder how to harness what I wanted for a particular amp and speaker choice.
you either have enough SPL with vol at max, or you don't have enough SPL with vol at max
gain - nothing to have with sound character
So... FWIW plus a bag of chips... Initial thoughts / boring stuff below.
Summary... WOW! Again.
This morning was the first of my experiences with the all important "don't wake wifey" listening levels.
In fairness, when I work early in the morning, I don't sit in the sweet spot or do any 'critical' listening. However, it's an important part of my day that helps me get going. The tunes vary widely. Generally, I just pop my "master list" on random and let it go. It's background music
This morning included (but wasn't limited to):
Bob Marley & the Wailers - Is This Love
King Harvest - Dancing In The Moonlight
You're All I Need To Get By - Marvin Gaye / Tammi Terrell
Brick House - The Commodores
Play That Funky Music (White Boy) - Wild Cherry
Now That We Found Love - Heavy D and the Boyz ... For the Greedy Boyz
If I Had $1,000,000 - Barenaked Ladies
Come And Get Your Love - Redbone
Take Your Mama - Scissor Sisters
Down to the River (to Pray) - Alisson Krauss
Little Wing - SRV
46 and 2 - Tool
Superstition - Stevie Wonder
Pink Houses (Unplugged) - JCM
Changes - Blind Melon
1985 - Bowling for Soup
You Get What You Give - New Radicals
Tupelo Honey - Van Morrison
The Mummer's Dance - Loreena McKennitt
Flight of the Cosmic Hippo - Bela Fleck & The Flecktones
Till It Shines - Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band
Lay Lady Lay - Bob Dylan
Dixie Chicken - Little Feat
Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes - Paul Simon
Master of Puppets - Metallica
The Times They Are A-Changin' - Keb' Mo'
.
.
.
The list goes on... but it's only to show that yeah... I listen to a lot of different things (It's a 5k+ list to pull from randomly), and I don't stick to any particular theme in the mornings. I just hit play and get on the computer.
What can I say... with unity gain, the attenuation / volume at "11" (b/c this one really does go to 11) and a nice quiet listening level; this thing lets more music flow. I have no way to describe it other than it's just 'more clear'. The bass is more prominent at low volume than I recall, and vocals are simply stunning along with guitar tones. Sometimes, I long for a "loudness button" in the early morning. Today... I could hear a little bit of bass as appropriate. I'm curious to try it with a few amps and a set of full range speakers / maybe the SLOBs. The speakers that are hooked up at the moment (Tekton DIs) in all fairness haven't really catered themselves to polite listening. They're more for getting a lot of air moving. I could be persuaded to keep them hooked up all the time with this pre ... which says a lot.
I've had the same amp (F8 variant) hooked up for roughly a month with the same speakers with the Iron Pre balanced using the same DAC / Streamer as a source. So, even though music memory / auditory memory is suspect at best... and confirmation bias is a very real thing... I'd say with a level of confidence that it's a positive move.
@Zen Mod - *******' Brilliant. The fact that you can provide a kit with basic instructions that even a dodo like me can build successfully without bugging you for support says a lot. The board layout is insanely intuitive. There's a custom chassis that can be one-click ordered (unless you're a dodo like me). All custom parts are supplied, all critical components are supplied, and all SMD components are pre-soldered. Everything else is off the shelf. And so far... I can't be more smitten. Kudos!
Summary... WOW! Again.
This morning was the first of my experiences with the all important "don't wake wifey" listening levels.
In fairness, when I work early in the morning, I don't sit in the sweet spot or do any 'critical' listening. However, it's an important part of my day that helps me get going. The tunes vary widely. Generally, I just pop my "master list" on random and let it go. It's background music
This morning included (but wasn't limited to):
Bob Marley & the Wailers - Is This Love
King Harvest - Dancing In The Moonlight
You're All I Need To Get By - Marvin Gaye / Tammi Terrell
Brick House - The Commodores
Play That Funky Music (White Boy) - Wild Cherry
Now That We Found Love - Heavy D and the Boyz ... For the Greedy Boyz
If I Had $1,000,000 - Barenaked Ladies
Come And Get Your Love - Redbone
Take Your Mama - Scissor Sisters
Down to the River (to Pray) - Alisson Krauss
Little Wing - SRV
46 and 2 - Tool
Superstition - Stevie Wonder
Pink Houses (Unplugged) - JCM
Changes - Blind Melon
1985 - Bowling for Soup
You Get What You Give - New Radicals
Tupelo Honey - Van Morrison
The Mummer's Dance - Loreena McKennitt
Flight of the Cosmic Hippo - Bela Fleck & The Flecktones
Till It Shines - Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band
Lay Lady Lay - Bob Dylan
Dixie Chicken - Little Feat
Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes - Paul Simon
Master of Puppets - Metallica
The Times They Are A-Changin' - Keb' Mo'
.
.
.
The list goes on... but it's only to show that yeah... I listen to a lot of different things (It's a 5k+ list to pull from randomly), and I don't stick to any particular theme in the mornings. I just hit play and get on the computer.
What can I say... with unity gain, the attenuation / volume at "11" (b/c this one really does go to 11) and a nice quiet listening level; this thing lets more music flow. I have no way to describe it other than it's just 'more clear'. The bass is more prominent at low volume than I recall, and vocals are simply stunning along with guitar tones. Sometimes, I long for a "loudness button" in the early morning. Today... I could hear a little bit of bass as appropriate. I'm curious to try it with a few amps and a set of full range speakers / maybe the SLOBs. The speakers that are hooked up at the moment (Tekton DIs) in all fairness haven't really catered themselves to polite listening. They're more for getting a lot of air moving. I could be persuaded to keep them hooked up all the time with this pre ... which says a lot.
I've had the same amp (F8 variant) hooked up for roughly a month with the same speakers with the Iron Pre balanced using the same DAC / Streamer as a source. So, even though music memory / auditory memory is suspect at best... and confirmation bias is a very real thing... I'd say with a level of confidence that it's a positive move.
@Zen Mod - *******' Brilliant. The fact that you can provide a kit with basic instructions that even a dodo like me can build successfully without bugging you for support says a lot. The board layout is insanely intuitive. There's a custom chassis that can be one-click ordered (unless you're a dodo like me). All custom parts are supplied, all critical components are supplied, and all SMD components are pre-soldered. Everything else is off the shelf. And so far... I can't be more smitten. Kudos!
And... by the time you add speakers that have their own personalities, you might be rethinking what works best. I know that with my speakers that I don't get Nirvana at reasonable levels except maybe on vinyl. At the moment, I am rewiring the ugliness that I created on one of my builds, so that makes me use no preamp. Should sound best, right? Don't ask me, but I can't wait to get back to 'normal'.
That's what I thought, but my experience tells me differently. At the time I switched from the B1 to the BA-3 as preamp my system consisted of a Pearl II -> B1 -> F5 -> Focal 826V speakers. This setup sounded wonderful for acoustical music...say a guitar and vocals, but add an electric bass and kick drum to the mix and the sound was rather anemic. Swapping in the BA-3 greatly improved the sound for this music (Rock and Roll) but maintained the sound I liked for acoustical music, jazz, etc. And no, it's not the "mantra of my psyche", anyone without significant hearing loss would tell the difference...It's as plain as the nose on your face.
So Patrick, If you listen to the song "Play That Funky Music" at the 0dB setting and then again at 8dB setting is there no difference (provided SPL's are roughly the same)? I'll try an experiment tonight as well, I still have that B1 somewhere...I'll swap the B1 for the Iron pre and see what I get playing that same song.
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@KevinHeem - I don't know. At the moment, the lid is on... and it's not coming off for awhile. Once I swap amps and/or speakers, I'll certainly post any impressions. It's tough for me to level match, but I think I can do it.
Right now... RHCP Dani California has me groovin'... don't know how it can be better. It's good the wifey is awake... or she would be.
@Plott - Interesting... there is the load resistor to add a bit of sugar... but I like mine as-is.
Both - it will be a process for me to move through all the iterations etc. I look forward to trying all the various gains with different amps / speakers / sources. If it gets better... then WHOAH!
Right now... RHCP Dani California has me groovin'... don't know how it can be better. It's good the wifey is awake... or she would be.
@Plott - Interesting... there is the load resistor to add a bit of sugar... but I like mine as-is.
Both - it will be a process for me to move through all the iterations etc. I look forward to trying all the various gains with different amps / speakers / sources. If it gets better... then WHOAH!
It's funny, because I like the 8dB setting more, it's more lively in my ears.
Mighty told me, it has also something to do with the amount of sugar. And with my ears
Catch 22 is is that +8db setting must be avoided in balanced Iron Pumpkin, in scenario of SE input - Bal output
that's the case when load is just too much, even for superdupertoshibabuffer
any other combination of input - output - gain setting is non-critical
it's either my ZMEngrish (so ya didn't catch my drift), or you didn't analyzed your experience properly
scenario:
- one system, with B1 as preamp, set to max vol. , vs.
- same system, with any other preamp, vol set to have same SPL as previous
difference you hear, isn't because of gain difference of preamp, it's rather because of different sonic signature/character between preamps
speakers are getting same power, amp is getting same input voltage, your ears are getting same air pressurization