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Preamps - purist or full featured


richieb

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Wanting another preamp and am split between the "purist" line stage only or one that offers balance and tone controls more old school than hi end hifi. I recently brought out an old Yamaha C6 that sounds remarkably good for its 30+ age. Cutting to the chase - who favors the ability to contour your sound, tone controls or who prefers "gain with wire" line stage only? I'm looking solid state only, no tubes and leaning toward tone and contour controls. 

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32 minutes ago, richieb said:

Cutting to the chase - who favors the ability to contour your sound, tone controls

Love being able to tweak the sound with tone controls and balance.  All rooms are not created equal and sometimes those features are necessary(to me).  No preamps per say but both my integrated amps have very nice tone/balance controls especially my Yamaha.  Actually when I added my RSW-10d subwoofer to the A-S1000/RB-75's system the bass tone controls came in handy when integrating the sub.

 

Bill

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2 hours ago, richieb said:

tone and contour controls.

Options to have these are important to me, not that I always use them, but at least are available.  Older (you know, like me) recordings sometimes need a bit of tweaking.  I'm sure you would consider a very good quality unit, so I think the addition of that in the audio path is likely a non-issue.

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My primary preamps would be in the "no frills" category but I also have preamps with tone and balance controls that I regularly rotate into the main system.

 

In my opinion, the most important criteria is how the preamp sounds in your system and room. The preamp that beckons you to play more music is the right one to get.

 

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^^^^^

and speaking of good quality, higher end pieces I'll be first to admit I can be somewhat elitist in brands. One such brand that for no good reason I don't consider "high end" but checks every box is Emotiva. Their newest XSP1 Gen 2 seems to have it all from tone controls to sub out contour, fully differential, true balanced XLR Class A circuits, resistor type volume control,even remote. You know the drill designed in US, made in China. Has seen some good feedback and reviews but none from the "hi end" community. Seems to do it all and built to a high standard. So I ask myself, other than admitting to my snobbery - what's not to like?

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Bought a Parasound with tone controls. I like adding a little more bass. I'm older and I remember my first Pioneer rack system had an equalizer. I thought that was some cool stuff at the time.  I notice there are very few equalizers out there anymore. Good thing, I was forever "fine tuning" my music.

 

BTW, my Pioneer aftermarket unit in my Jeep has an equilizer with 9 bars i can adjust.

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I have completely bypassed my pre-amps at times, connecting source directly to amps.  If the speaker/room situation is pretty good, then there is no pre-amp like literally no pre-amp.

 

But I haven't met a room where some eq wasn't beneficial, not to mention the wide scope of recording quality that I may tweak on an as-needed basis, so I prefer pre-amps with tone controls/eq.   I should add that genuinely useful tone controls are few and far between, which is unfortunate. 

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I like to have tone controls on my pre amp. I don't use them much but some recordings benifit from them and I like the option to use them. I looked at alot of pre amps before buying a Mcintosh C-50 and the tone controls where a huge selling point, I doubt I would have bought it if it didn't have them. 

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On 9/2/2017 at 1:30 PM, richieb said:

 

^^^^^

and speaking of good quality, higher end pieces I'll be first to admit I can be somewhat elitist in brands. One such brand that for no good reason I don't consider "high end" but checks every box is Emotiva. Their newest XSP1 Gen 2 seems to have it all from tone controls to sub out contour, fully differential, true balanced XLR Class A circuits, resistor type volume control,even remote. You know the drill designed in US, made in China. Has seen some good feedback and reviews but none from the "hi end" community. Seems to do it all and built to a high standard. So I ask myself, other than admitting to my snobbery - what's not to like?

I have this pre amp I also ave a Juicy Music Peach. They both have strong points I rotate them in and out but lately have been enjoying the emo, The sub outs is what I like and the ability to go balanced instead of RCA's...again just for something different. I think you will really like the emo I know my Khorns do.

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seeing as you want to be all ss, I would want to have tone controls unless you have an eq (then there's no need for them)

I would always consider any brand of gear. check with the expert & joe average reviews to narrow the list of potentials down & then find a dealer or forum member & have a listen to as many as possible. in the end, how it sounds to you in your system is all that matters

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