Underhanded Penguin Posted December 8, 2003 Share Posted December 8, 2003 Hi guys. Forgive my stupidity, but I'm about to buy an amp for my bookshelves. I plan on getting a preamp eventually, but if I'm only using the speakers as two channel and I only have one source: a cd player, then what good will a preamp be for me? I guess what I'm trying to ask is what else does a pre/pro do besides dsp, signal/source switching, and speaker switching? Can I use my speakers without a preamp for a while? Thanks. -Stupid Penguin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scrambler400 Posted December 8, 2003 Share Posted December 8, 2003 Well, without a preamp you will not be able to control the volume of your speakers. This is the main reason for having the pre. You will also have no tweaking ability to rais or lower bass/treble levels. To some people these aren't important features, but volume certainly is JML Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Posted December 8, 2003 Share Posted December 8, 2003 Apparently, some CD players do let you control the volume of the output via the headphone knob on the front. I have also heard of power amplifiers that have power control knobs on them also. In these cases, the reviewers did not seem to be too pleased with the sound. The typical response was something like though the pre-amplifier added to the sound, the reviewer liked the coloration more with the pre-amplifier than without it. I have used Nude? Ultimate? line controls to control the sound going directly into Pass amplifiers. I liked the sound, but did not do a A/B comparison. In any event, I need to get sound from a CD player, TV cable box and VCR, so a switching device is required. I also need to take the pre-amplifier output and divide into headphone and sub-woofer amplifiers. So for me, the pre-amplifier does a lot more than just increase the sound volume. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Underhanded Penguin Posted December 8, 2003 Author Share Posted December 8, 2003 Oh my cd player has volume adjustment when connected in analog. But I guess not all cd players do. Good point. I never adjust tones though. Flat is always best imo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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