Topic: Sound Difference bet. SS and Tube Amp

[Nelson de Leon]

that is an easy one to address.....trust me...
tbh, this is the first time for me to hear about the 5 volt input sensitivity...
in my designs i target 1 volt as input sensitivity...

I trust you and I know you have already addressed this issue in your designs. Ikaw pa! What I'm actually referring to are the aftermarket tube amps.

[cyberdraven]

Question po:  if preamps would output 1-2V, do you still need one considering new players cater the same gain level?  Parang hindi na practical.

[tony]

I trust you and I know you have already addressed this issue in your designs. Ikaw pa! What I'm actually referring to are the aftermarket tube amps.

see how easy it is to get a clear picture when figures are thrown in....

[tony]

Question po:  if preamps would output 1-2V, do you still need one considering new players cater the same gain level?  Parang hindi na practical.

depends on your personal preference, theoretically there is no need...
but there are those who like pre-amps in their system for a variety of reasons...
IOW, it is a personal thing.....

sa welcome rotonda, merong big big audiophile, one time i brought a preamp for him to try,
what he did was to put the preamp in series with with his main preamp....he liked my preamp....

[Nelson de Leon]

Question po:  if preamps would output 1-2V, do you still need one considering new players cater the same gain level?  Parang hindi na practical.

Well, according to master Tony, since he designed his power amp sa 1 volt input, for level matching, baka hindi na kailangan ng pre amp sa amp niya. But you would still need a preamp to control the input gain and source selection. Though nasubukan ko din naman ang tube power amp without preamp, it's doable naman if you would add a potentiometer sa input, or kung digital source, sa digital side ka mag adjust ng volume.

[JojoD818]

Question po:  if preamps would output 1-2V, do you still need one considering new players cater the same gain level? 

Don't forget about impedance matching. Gain level isn't the only thing that matters.

Just because an amp's input section was redesigned to allow lower input levels, say 0.707V doesn't mean it can accept any source input level above 1V. Impedance, distortion, noise and all that are still in play. As with anything in life, changing that has consequences, failure to address that can lead to problems. Gain structuring is something most people, even the technical ones do not understand nor have an idea of what it is. Designers and manufacturers adhere to these so that their products can be paired, to a sincere level, with any known sources out in the market.

For commercial/home use, it is normal to see input/output levels between 0.5V up to 5V peak-to-peak, for pro use, 5V is a standard level without signal clipping.

Parang hindi na practical.

That's why there are numbers and conventions.

[tony]

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/apr98/articles/gainstructure.html