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Has anyone tried to use a high quality PreAmp between their source and a headphone amp?

post #1 of 4
9/18/10 at 8:38am
Thread Starter 

I have used a preamp (a McIntosh C46 and a Rowland) to get remote volume control for my headphone amps

with surprisingly good results.

 

If a tube unit is used in a solid-state setup, it can add some add some tubiness.

(They actually sell tube buffer units; PS Audio I think has these.)

 

And some preamps have bass/treble controls (Macs, Accuphases, Van Alstines.)

And also, you can get some more boost for a headphone amp that may not have enough power.

 

Has anyone tried this?

 

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post #2 of 4
9/18/10 at 6:26pm

Bad idea; you're just adding more into the signal chain.

 

The best idea would be to have a high quality headphone amp that is a preamp, thus ensuing no signal degradation.

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post #3 of 4
9/18/10 at 6:50pm
Yes, but I don't feed the preamp out into my headphone amp, for the reasons Gazza states.

However, a tape loop out or record out connected to your headphone amp lets you use the preamp to select sources and gives you the option of running speakers.
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post #4 of 4
9/22/10 at 10:22am
Thread Starter 

I do this:

CD-Player --> Preamp --> Headphone Amp --> Phones

 

Works for me in A/B test with no Preamp.

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