To Dean: See the Amity input stage in JFL's post/link

[Erik Mandaville]

This has everything to do with the question you asked me -- which I devoted some time to answer.

There was a post by another member that provided some good info on this, as well.

[Deang]

I appreciate the time you spent writing out that post. When I got to the end though, the thought that came to mind was that preamps do much more than just "amplification".

I spent yesterday afternoon hanging out at the Nutshell Site. Very impressive people and work over there.

[Erik Mandaville]

Of course they do more than amplify, however that was originally the reason they first began to be used -- first in radio applications, and then in audio.

They also color the sound of the original recording, just as any amplifier, preamp, CD player, TT, reel-to-reel, or any electronic machine designed to reproduce music in the home. That is simply unavoidable. The trick, I think, is to be able to recreate the illusion with as much fidelity to the original source material as possible.

Some people don't like the sound of a source going straight into the amps, and thus might use a preamp to 'change' the sound more to their liking. Or, some may believe that a preamp overly alters the original sonic signature, and prefer to go straight to the amps, perhaps by way of a passive volume control and/or switch box. How can anyone be wrong about what they prefer and enjoy?

You are on a frequent quest to find what you want to hear in the form of musical reproduction, and regardless of what others have said about that, Dean, it is your right to do that. Hopefully you'll soon find the apparatus -- hollow state, solid state, or hybrid -- that brings you the sound you want.

I hope you read the post about the AE-1. There seemed to be some misunderstanding there. Ed Whitesell also sent me his Moondogs to repair.