whats a preamp?

[andre-k]

does anyone want to explain what a preamp is? Is it better to add a additional amp or just upgrade your complete reciever?

[jzoz01]

I'm not sure exactly what you're asking. Anyway, a pre-amp is like a reciever without amplification or a tuner. It inputs your signal, does the processing, and outputs to a seperate amp. The idea is that by issolating componants you can achieve better sound. If you're looking to add an amp, you can use your reciever as a pre-amp until you get a dedicated one. That's actually what I plan on doing shortly.

[formica]

Some creative cut-paste gives you the following:

Preamp (or Preamplifier): A component which takes a low-level studio signal (from a signal source such as a tuner, phono, CD, TV, etc...) and amplifies it sufficiently to be fed to a power amplifier. The preamplifier generally provides source switching, volume and signal processing (balance, fader and tone controls), etc...

Power Amplifier: An electronic device or product designed to turn a small signal into a larger one to drive the loudspeaker.

Receiver: combines the Preamp, Amp, and Tuner in one box. Reduces cost as it has only one case, one remote, one set of inputs-outputs, and only one POWER Supply... often can't keep up with a dedicated amplifier as it has only one shared POWER supply barely meeting the demand.

Receivers are often cheaper than PREAMPS of similar quality because of sales volume... but the "top of the line" components are usually separates (preamp, amp, tuner, etc...) Poweramps seems to be better than receivers of similar price points.

my 2 cents...

Rob