AlexM;692443 Wrote: > Jaime, > > Yes, The touch can in effect negate the need for a preamp but whether > this is the best quality option is debatable, and an almost > philosophical consideration. If you believe that the best component is > no component, then this will possibly work. In your situation I think > you are best avoiding faffing around with attenuators, worrying about > gain structures of the sb touch and your chosen power amp etc, and that > you should look for a good quality integrated amp with a proper volume > knob and inputs for other devices should you want them. > > I have reservations about using the sb touch as its own preamp - I'm > not convinced that the line out is happy driving a power amp with a low > impedance input, and using a lot of digital volume reduction is going to > compromise the resolution of the output. > > You don't say whether you are looking at solid state amplification or > valves, but in the latter case I would recommend the Rogue Audio > Chronus integrated amp > ... an utterly superb product that is as fuss free as a valve amp could > possibly be, and it should match the Tannoys well sonically too. It even > has a pretty decent MM Phonograph stage too, and is excellently > constructed so would be a great s/h buy if you can find one within your > budget. > > Regards, > Alex
Pretty much any competent modern solid state amp will work fine without a preamp. One of the class d amps I pointed out has built in volume controls, which takes care of the attenuation issue, without any faffing around at all. Unless you really want a tube amp or need to play records, I wouldn't bother. And there are plenty of modern transistor amps that sound great and have volume controls for attenuation. One of the things I like about the class d option is that you can get some serious power, rather than paying a substantial amount of money for a preamp section that really doesn't add very much. Tom Danley of Danley Sound Labs did a test listening to some large scale orchestral music on very efficient speakers (his own), and found that, even on fairly moderate volumes, he was actually getting clipping for very brief periods with smaller amps on transients. This is measurable and ugly, and easily avoided by getting a really powerful amp. Since good sounding powerful amps are now quite cheap, I went with one of those. This seems like a far better value to me than a small integrated with low power that will clip at high volumes (ok, clipping doesn't sound as bad on tubes, but still, it's gross distortion, not some minor thing like the different sound of a new dac). I'm not making an abstract philosophical point here, just questioning the value of a component the primary purpose of which is volume control and source switching in a single source modern system. If you don't need the volume to be boosted, it's pretty much just wasted money, and there are plenty of good inexpensive amps that don't need the volume of the touch to be boosted in order to play well. If you buy a decent modern amp, this is completely unnecessary. The money saved could go to room treatments or subs, which will have a larger audible effect, or more music (I guess that will have an audible effect, as well ;) ). -- totoro sb touch -> classdaudio sds-450 -> audio physic tempo 4 + rel storm 3 & rythmik f12se ------------------------------------------------------------------------ totoro's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=5935 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=93776 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
