Pre Amp Blues...

[DSJR]

A Solid State bargain IMO. I bet the tweakers/bodgers will "discover" this venerable old range before too long.....

[aquapiranha]

Shaun, have you considering building one yourself? there is currently a very simple yet it seems excellent sounding one called an LDR pre-amp that is cheap and easy to build - in fact there is a thread about just that in the DIY section.

(light dependent resistor LDR)

[The Grand Wazoo]

I have a pair of 8000m mono blocks complete with a 8000q pre amp sitting on my office floor, they are for sale at £500 the lot, no boxes and not mint but the owner (not me) needs the cash.

I'd be snapping Jon's arm off & setting about acquiring the requisite cables for bi-amping if I were you.

[Haselsh1]

My experience at bi-amping is not good. Quite a few years back I bi-amped my system and quickly realised I had wasted hundreds of pounds in amplification as to me, there was no discernible increase in sound quality. I can get an Audiolab 8000Q preamp via Lintone Audio for 250 quid. My original point was; would this be noticeably better than a passive preamp costing more...???

[Themis]

To my experience, an active preamp is much better than a passive one.

I don't understand much about the theory, but it would seem (from what I understood) that a *good* passive preamp is very hard to design.

Perhaps by joining a passive preamp and and a buffer you get to the same result as a preamp ? I wonder.

[DSJR]

Most vintage valve amps and a few older transistor ones (Naim, Quad 33 etc) have a high input impedance, so you can use a good passive preamp as long as the interconnect is of very low capacitance. Some budget amps used to be basically a power amp fed by selector switch and volume control (Cyrus 1 and 2 were like this).

The 8000Q will be as transparent to the source as you can reasonably get. A lot of work went into its design and it was originally a £1200 preamp back when first launched. £250 for a UK version is a very good price IMO and it could be further tweaked if you could find out the "race-tuning" Tag carried out on the design after the take-over...

Sadly, I can't comment on the current Chinese made version. It may be at least as good for all I know, but won't have the solid build or pride in ownership the original had IMO...

Bi-amping can work wonders if the amps are all the same. Bi-wiring is a different and very inferior kettle of fish, as there's too many variables I found. Personally, I found bi-amping to be as close to active as you can get, even though the tweeters don't really need all that power. It probably keeps phase relationships under better control if the amps are all the sale from bass to top for all I know...

[Haselsh1]

Shaun, have you considering building one yourself? there is currently a very simple yet it seems excellent sounding one called an LDR pre-amp that is cheap and easy to build - in fact there is a thread about just that in the DIY section.

(light dependent resistor LDR)

Aquapiranha, my DIY skills are virtually non existant even though I do fully understand that I would get a much superior product that way. Unfortunately I have only 350 quid to spend which is why I questioned spending it in the first place. I questioned whether or not an Audiolab 8000Q ACTIVE would be better than a Creek OBH-22 PASSIVE. Both preamps cost around 300 pounds but of course the casework of the 8000Q would match my 8000M's.

The input impedence of the 8000M monoblocks means that a passive preamp can be used with no loss of treble and as they have a 1V input sensitivity they can be used with most other devices without any preamplification. I love the weight of these power amps and I love the sheer slam and 'welly' of the sound. For what they cost now they are a true bargain however mine were at the old price. C' Est La Vie I guess.

[Haselsh1]

Haselsh1

Treat yourself to a Naim system and join the legions of thousands of satisfied customers. Naim is the UK's most sucessful company for one simple reason, it is the best.

Regards

Mick

Put very simply, Naim is not the best. It never was and probably never will be. If it hadn't been for the prejudices of the seventies Hi-Fi magazines like Hi-Fi Answers, Naim would simply be what it always was... another UK amplifier.

[Mick Parry]

Shaun

Naim is highly successful because there are thousands such as I who regard them as the best. Not all of us are wrong.

Regards

Mick

[Haselsh1]

Shaun

Naim is highly successful because there are thousands such as I who regard them as the best. Not all of us are wrong.

Regards

Mick

There are so many successful amplifiers out there including Linn. They're not wrong either.