Pre & Integrated

[Reffc]

Just interested to learn how many of you might use a preamplifier output connected to a line input on an integrated. I've spoken to several people in the past month who do this after buying a preamp on a whim. I'm not convinced myself as unless the integrated has a pre-stage bypass or separate pre-in connection it implies that the signal has to go through two attenuators and sets of selector switchgear. One chap has the same amp as myself and sets the volume on the amp to maximum, controlling volume from the pre and he swears by the improvement in sound (I've yet to hear it). Unless a passive pre-stage i the integrated is used, I would have thought that this simply raises noise floor, but who am I to argue when I've not listened? Just interested to get the views or experience of anyone else going down this route.

[DSJR]

I'd try connecting the pre out to the Tape Monitor input if your amp has one. Then set the preamp gain quite high (volume control at least half to two-thirds way up) and use the amp volume control to get near the maximum comfortable sound level. This will keep as much signal as possible coming down the interconnect and hopefully maximise signal to noise. The PREAMP is then the volume crontrol....

[Bluedroog]

I have a Croft 25 pre-amp which I use into a Quad 909 power amp, before I bought the Croft I used makeshift pre-amps in the form of a Beresford DAC with volume pot and a Denon AVR in ‘pure direct’ mode. Introducing the Croft made a very obvious and clear improvement in the sound as well as changing the character slightly.

As an experiment I tried the Croft in to a Mini-T amp I have, I could hear far less of the Croft in this configuration.

[Reffc]

Interesting stuff. I have a line out set of RCA sockets round back of the main amp plus 5 line level inputs so would have to use the normal inputs I reckon if experimenting. I only got to thinking about this as the EAR 834P signature I use is effectively a preamp with a volume control., and it sounds mighty fine to my ears, so thought it worth experimenting and perhaps trying an offboard pre.

[The Grand Wazoo]

I did exactly as Dave describes for a while years ago.
I spent a large sum on a preamp & used this method as a stop-gap until I could afford to buy the power amp I really wanted.

[DSJR]

A Croft preamp does work splendidly with a Quad power amp (done it here with gain-adjusted Quad 303 and currently with the rebuilt II's), the stock Croft's exuberance working a treat with the velvet tones of a sorted Quad power amp :)

[Reffc]

Thinking on it, there's no real merit as I can't bypass the preamp stage, so all I'd be doing is making the signal path more convoluted and ultimately more lossy. Instead, I've been playing around with swapping cables out and have re-wired with Reference Plutos for the phono leads and Ref Mercury's for the CDP IC. That made some improvements straight away. The biggest improvement though was switching over to using the 4 Ohm taps instead of the 8 Ohm taps, even though the 'speakers are nominally 8 Ohms plus or minus 2 Ohms across the audible frequency range. Much better bass control and a better sonic balance overall. What was an 11w amp @ 8Ohms is now a 5 or 6 Watt amp at 4 Ohms! (into an 8Ohm load) and sounding all the better for it!