Preamp advice

Can anyone advise me on a replacement pre
I recently bought bryston 4b st and a pair of pmc ob1
At present I use my old arcam alpha 9 intergrated as a pre but would like to upgrade this too. The arcam allows me to run a yamaha a1 av amp through it by way of a processor bypass switch so you don't have to swap speakers from each amp
Can I do the same with other pre's through the tape loop ?
I was thinking maybe bryston bp25 or any suggestions that work well with bryston/pmc would be apprciated
At present I connect a arcam 8se cd and a rega planner 2

cheers
Richard

 

HI, YES YOU CAN, via tape loop, how much do you want to spend on a ppre-amp, at present a good bargain is a musical fidelity X-PRE-V3, witch i have left for £325.00 with a good phono stage built in, i do like bryston amps, super sounding, nando

 

I always thought Brystons worked well with a passive. Many around to choose from including some with a tape loop. And they are normally a lot cheaper than an active.

Richard

 

richard, in your travels through the hi-fi seas, did you ever feel when listening to pre-amps, both active and passive that somehow passive lack stage and image? alburry tried both methods on one pre, always found that the active side of it created more dynamics and stage, but it also depends on the pwr amps, or maybe is a matter of preference, regards nando.

 

Too much electrical noise - dirt on the window - from actives for my taste. But some power amps don't like passives, though they can never harm them. Where as a power amp designed for passive could be harmed by using active.

It depends how much capacitive coupling there is at the input of the power amp, and also in some ways the loading resistance as well. That capacitance in conjunction with a variable resistance from the output of the passive creates a tone control that dulls and loses life and image at low power levels. High capacitance interconnects create the same effects with a passive. This only happens with resistive passives not transformer based ones, but I think they have other problems that smears the window.

Suck it and see is always a good idea. Bryston always liked passives IMO.

Richard

 

how's about active ATCs and passive TVCs?

can't remember that i've seen any reports

 

Have a look at a Mark Levinson 380 pre as it has a separate input for surround sound, By-passing the volume controls on the pre amp. Oh! and look by chance I have a ML380 for sale. What a coincidence? Any interest to you?

 

:JPS:

 

Works very nicely, I've tried it.

 

Connoisseur 5.0L
Well, no one mentioned a budget...

 

Boulder 2010?

 

Joel, any info when the 6.0 will be ready? They should name it the Lyra Godot.

 

Hi Richard,

Care to expand on what you think these problems might involve?
(I agree btw)

rgs
Murray

 

Joel, that is seriously tasty looking kit. Hopefully sounds just as good.

 

Coils in the signal path, but I don't have that much experience of transformer passives. They had only just come in when I was in my last incarnation.

I remember listening to the newer Quad electrostatics many many years ago and thinking them duff compared with the 57, then saw all those bloody coils!! They changed them latter I think.

*Anything* in the signal path potentially smears the window. The more or longer as in the case of coils, the more smear.

Sometimes it is necessary as with valve amps. Have you ever produced an output transformer less valve amp?

Anyway in my very limited experience of valve amps, bugger the quality of the valves relative to the quality of the output tranny.

Richard

 

It doesn't have a sound as far as I can tell...

Do you have a problem with the 5.0

 

IMHO, audio just isn't that convoluted... Most people including many good friends of mine (who incidentally have far better systems than me) would disagree, though.
Audio/music is processed in the brain - an instrument of far greater complexity, subtlety and ingenuity than any mere electro-mechanical device.

 

Richard, don't know whether you have come across this. The reviewer's findings in substituting the NVA passive for a TVC based pre feeding an NVA power amp...
http://www.tnt-audio.com/ampli/django_e.html

 

IME Richard is spot on.

I remember the first time I listened to a passive, thinking, now I know what 'transistor glare' is.

Also, then listening to a MF X10-V3 buffer stage and wondering why anyone would want to listen to the stuff that it added. I thought it was crap! Still, 50,000 odd sales, so what do I know!?

Your argument surprises me, the brain processes what it gets, and different electronics equals different input, no?

 

As I say I have no experience of transformer passives. I just have an instinctive dislike of coils and capacitors (another form of coil). The beauty is we all have ears to hear and minds to make judgements, that is all that is important.

Richard