Meeting a High Priest of the world of hi-fi BS.

[Chromatic]

One question that has always confused me. What is a pre-amp and what is a power amp and what do they do?

A bit of an explanation from a quick google below, the second section sums up the basic difference.

The amp I have is an integrated amp, ie. it has the pre and power components in the one box.


You are here: Home / Singing / Preamplifier Vs. Amplifier: What’s The Difference And Do I Need Both?
Preamplifier Vs. Amplifier: What’s The Difference And Do I Need Both?
September 6, 2017 By Camila 6 Comments

The terms sound similar, but the two devices perform different functions.
If you’re setting up a studio, whether professional or just for fun at home, you have undoubtedly come across the terms amp and preamp.
And naturally, you’re wondering what the difference is.
More importantly, do you need one, or both, of them?
Good preamps and amps are not cheap, so you definitely don’t want to end up buying equipment you don’t actually need.
So let’s get to it.
First of all, I want to clarify that amp and poweramp are interchangeable. Those two are the same thing, so there aren’t, in fact, three devices to worry about.
Let’s begin by looking at the differences.

Preamplifier Vs. Power Amplifier
The basic difference is this: a preamp boosts a weaker signal to line level, while an amplifier boosts a line level signal so that it can be sent to speakers

 

[Chromatic]

A mate of mine has got a valve phono stage and swears by it, I will check one out next time upgrade my Rega turntable.

Go for it!

 

[Levo-Lon]

Treat Every commissioned Salesperson as a thief and you won't be far wrong.

If a window or car sales executive whatever could get ten times more for what you won't they will let you pay that.

On the plus side these days 10 mins on Google should give you a good ball park figure to work with.
But we are a nation of trusting saps, so parting people from their money is sadly very easy.

 

[Bonefish Blues]

I haven't got a pre-amplifankler, only a power amplimationer - do you think I should get one?

Actually, I really don't have one because not needed.

At the moment I'm listening to RadMac from a Novafidelity X12 digital source via a Mark Levinson CD39** being used as a DAC/pre-amp, through a NAD Silverline S200 power amp into Zingali Overture .2S speakers via cabling woven on the thighs of cuban cigar makers in their spare time (actually JPS stuff, using the balanced outputs from the Levinson to the NAD) and very fine it sounds, too.

**which, considering it's 20 years old, was very clever work BITD

 

[mudsticks]

I wanted to hear some electrostatic speakers, having heard some about 45 years ago and always remembered being blown away by the richness and depth of the sound. So I contacted a hi-fi shop. The owner invited us to his house on Saturday morning to hear some speakers. After some satnav problems we found the house, a huge pile on the outskirts of town and rang the doorbell... nobody came. Rang again.... nobody. So I hammered on the massive door and immediately it swung open revealing a man who asked us to remove our shoes and showed us into the lounge. First shock - the room was full of massive ugly wooden objects like giant Russian dolls, which I realised were speakers.

There were two others about 8' tall and looking like the monoliths from 2001 a Space Odyssey, which he told us were by a famous Danish engineer. The room was cramped, cold, damp and messy and one entire wall was taken up with CDs and records. There was a nasty green sofa and lots of unbelievably vulgar stands holding all kinds of amps and other equipment. The man took us up to a bedroom where there were some more conventional looking speakers arranged facing the bed. His dog was whining and sniffing at a door and he told us: "Oh my wife is in the bathroom". The door opened and a woman came out, grabbed the dog and scuttled out. The man put on a CD of a woman singing a jazz song, hopeless for demonstrating the speakers. He berated us with his views on the wi-fi business, saying that magazine journalists all live in million-pound houses thanks to the huge bungs they receive for writing good reviews, the industry is full of charlatans and thieves and there was only one way to buy hi-fi equipment, which is from him because only he knows what's good, etcetera etcetera. There was a record deck, which had an interesting clear perspex turntable and I asked the price: five thousand pounds. I was feeling intensely uncomfortable and could see that Mrs Gti was in a state of shock at the way what should have been a pleasant, relaxing experience was unfolding into something altogether weird and upsetting.

I realised I had made a mistake in approaching this bloke and an exit strategy was needed so I simply said: "Sorry, we're wasting your time, I can see that you are in a different world to the one we inhabit, we'd better leave now." He accepted but continued to berate us with his views on life, how everybody was corrupt, how he wrote the only true reviews for the hi-fi magazines, right up to the moment we got in the car and drove off. We felt we had escaped a bizarre experience and when we Googled those hideous speakers we discovered that they cost £75,000 and weigh 160 kilos each.

I realised then that the world of hi-fi is based on even bigger BS than I thought - when a length of speaker cable can cost £400 but you can buy 10 metres of 1.2mm two-core copper cable for £6 and we had just met one of its self-appointed High Priests. It was a thoroughly upsetting experience, especially the realisation that some gullible people actually fall for this mumbo-jumbo. People like him are the proof that if you price something extravagantly and make it look ostentatious there are enough fools out there for you to get very rich indeed from peddling falsehoods. How much of that applies in the rest of the world of luxury goods? We are still feeling upset by the experience two days later.

Eeew, that sounds well creepy - lucky escape.

And "A fool and his money, are easily parted" Springs to mind too.."

The best amplification I've come across just lately, is from a blue-tooth speaker nestled in a large plastic bowl, tilted up on the barn kitchen table.

Blasting out Donna Summer, and other assorted disco greats to accompany our soup making.

Statutory exercise time, doesn't get much funner than that.

 

[Chromatic]

@mudsticks making soup.

 

[mudsticks]

@mudsticks making soup.

Not so very far off..

We have two glitter balls even..

How swank is that??


Donna does have magnificently long arms doesn't she??

 

[Grant Fondo]

A bit of an explanation from a quick google below, the second section sums up the basic difference.

The amp I have is an integrated amp, ie. it has the pre and power components in the one box.


You are here: Home / Singing / Preamplifier Vs. Amplifier: What’s The Difference And Do I Need Both?
Preamplifier Vs. Amplifier: What’s The Difference And Do I Need Both?
September 6, 2017 By Camila 6 Comments

View attachment 512668 The terms sound similar, but the two devices perform different functions.
If you’re setting up a studio, whether professional or just for fun at home, you have undoubtedly come across the terms amp and preamp.
And naturally, you’re wondering what the difference is.
More importantly, do you need one, or both, of them?
Good preamps and amps are not cheap, so you definitely don’t want to end up buying equipment you don’t actually need.
So let’s get to it.
First of all, I want to clarify that amp and poweramp are interchangeable. Those two are the same thing, so there aren’t, in fact, three devices to worry about.
Let’s begin by looking at the differences.

Preamplifier Vs. Power Amplifier
The basic difference is this: a preamp boosts a weaker signal to line level, while an amplifier boosts a line level signal so that it can be sent to speakers

Not to muddy the water, but lol.....
My kit on previous page is streamer/preamp/power amp at top and power amp at bottom. Thus, the power amp on the top one is bypassed (which you can't do with an integrated amp.) Phew!

 

[ianrauk]

I was going to post this here a while ago but never did, now @Grant Fondo has brought the thread back I think I will. It's not a tale about hi-if BS but whilst not quite the opposite it's about a good hi-if shop experience.

Three years ago my wife and I went to Edinburgh for her to go to the Edinburgh Yarn Festival and one of the days I had to myself I decided to find a couple of hi-if shops to browse in. I found a couple on the interweb and set off to the first. I was expecting a high street type shop but what I found wasn't, it was a fairly up-market place a bit out of the centre almost in a residential area (they had a pair of ( I think used, maybe ex demo) speakers for sale in there priced at £27000 and that was half the rrp).
Anyway I walked in for a look and got talking to the man in there, he wasn't the owner but just an old guy who helped out for the love of it. I came clean saying I was only browsing and not looking to buy but we got talking and after I noticed a valve amp they had on the go I said that I had long hankered after a valve amp. Even knowing I wasn't going to spend any money that day he made me a cup of tea, invited me to sit down to listen to a few records and generally chat about music, it was a good experience.

The amp I saw was this:
View attachment 512654

and a few months later I contacted them and bought one. I drove up to fetch it, had a pleasant night in a nice hotel near Peebles before picking it up and driving back home.
I am very pleased with it.

A thing of beauty that is..

 

[cookiemonster]

A bit of an explanation from a quick google below, the second section sums up the basic difference.

The amp I have is an integrated amp, ie. it has the pre and power components in the one box.


You are here: Home / Singing / Preamplifier Vs. Amplifier: What’s The Difference And Do I Need Both?
Preamplifier Vs. Amplifier: What’s The Difference And Do I Need Both?
September 6, 2017 By Camila 6 Comments

View attachment 512668 The terms sound similar, but the two devices perform different functions.
If you’re setting up a studio, whether professional or just for fun at home, you have undoubtedly come across the terms amp and preamp.
And naturally, you’re wondering what the difference is.
More importantly, do you need one, or both, of them?
Good preamps and amps are not cheap, so you definitely don’t want to end up buying equipment you don’t actually need.
So let’s get to it.
First of all, I want to clarify that amp and poweramp are interchangeable. Those two are the same thing, so there aren’t, in fact, three devices to worry about.
Let’s begin by looking at the differences.

Preamplifier Vs. Power Amplifier
The basic difference is this: a preamp boosts a weaker signal to line level, while an amplifier boosts a line level signal so that it can be sent to speakers

My Cambridge Audio amp is the same and I thought I'd ask the experts here rather than Google as I usually get a better explanation.

 

[Chromatic]

Not so very far off..

View attachment 512677
We have two glitter balls even..

How swank is that??


Donna does have magnificently long arms doesn't she??

Two glitter balls, such extravagance!!

Donna was magnificent all over.

 

[Chromatic]

A thing of beauty that is..

It is isn't it? Sounds as good as it looks too to my ears.

 

[mudsticks]

Two glitter balls, such extravagance!!

Donna was magnificent all over.

Surely everyone knows that party supplies are an essential, when prepping for the apocalypse??

Rule no. 1 in the survival handbook.

"The will to live, is your greatest asset"

 

[raleighnut]

One question that has always confused me. What is a pre-amp and what is a power amp and what do they do?

Really a Power-amp has no controls on it at all (some may have a gain control but not many do) they just amplify the signal sent from a Pre-amp or as QUAD prefer to call them a 'Control Unit', this is where all the switching, volume control, filters etc is done. The reason for having this in a separate box is to keep the very low voltage signal away from the big mains transformer in the Power-amp and the magnetic field that it has.

 

[Fab Foodie]

I've had to recently upgrade due to my Arcam 7SE CD player finally giving-up the ghost and the venerable Audiolab 800A suffering on one channel.

I went for the Marantz CD6006E CD player and Rega Brio amplifier (current feeding a pair of Q Acoustics 2020s in my office). The plan is to build a pair of these: https://iplacoustics.co.uk/M1tl.htm
Then move everything into the lounge.

I've kept the Audiolab for a future refurb. The Marantz/Brio combo is very clean and clear and I've heard detail that I never knew existed, but the Audiolab is big and pompous and plays better music....