New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Preamp for Mackies

post #1 of 9
10/2/11 at 7:19am
Thread Starter 

I've been searching for a good pair of active studio monitors to be used for music/multimedia in my smallish living room.  I've arrived at the Mackie M5 MK2s so far, but the only problem is that they only have a (very unwieldy) input adjustment on the backside of their chassis.  If I still plan on getting the Mackies, I presume my best option would be to get a preamp to help control their volume levels more easily.

 

What is my best bet for a really cheap stereo preamp?  Would my Little Dot do the trick as a preamp for the mackies, or is that a no-go?

Reply
post #2 of 9
10/2/11 at 9:52am
A preamp is essential to get good sound, it's not a good place to save money in my opinion.
As for your little dot as preamp, try it, but don't let it distort so be careful at loud volumes, until you feel safe.
Also if the LD has even the slightest hint of a pop when it powers up, then power it on before the power amp/speakers or you might risk killing the speakers.

Take a look at some used Acurus (L10, RL11) preamps and see if they can't convince you to get something really good.
Reply
post #3 of 9
10/2/11 at 12:42pm
The little dot will be fine, you just need something with a half decent pot, the behringer xenyx would be ideal and give you eq controls aswell.
Reply
post #4 of 9
10/2/11 at 3:15pm
Thread Starter 

Alright that's good to know that my Little Dot will work.  I'm not too worried about the distortion at loud volumes because I'm in an apartment and I'll only probably be running the Mackies at their lowest output anyways to not disturb my neighbors.  I don't really think I'll be going for EQ either as they're already pretty much to my liking from what I've heard of them.  Mainly I just want a good solution for volume control.  The added warmth will be nice as well.  The setup isn't meant for critical listening-- that's reserved for my Denons, but more as multimedia.  And when it comes down to it, I highly enjoy the steampunkish look of tubes, so it'd be something nice to sit on my TV wall-panel's shelve.  It also gives me a reason to keep the Little Dot, because I was already looking for a good SS amp for the Denons.

 

I'll be sure to turn the speakers on last and off first.


Edited by TMRaven - 10/2/11 at 3:17pm
Reply
post #5 of 9
10/2/11 at 3:30pm

You could go with a passive volume attenuator.  They are specifically designed for controlling the volume of studio monitors without changing the sound.  Rather than an entire preamp, they are just a knob along with some high quality resistors.  Some of them include other features like switching.  Another advantage is that they will feed a balanced signal to the Mackies.

 

Anyhow, there's a category at Musician's Friend for them:

 

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/studio-monitor-volume-controllers

 

Reply
post #6 of 9
10/2/11 at 3:47pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by barleyguy View Post

You could go with a passive volume attenuator.  They are specifically designed for controlling the volume of studio monitors without changing the sound.  Rather than an entire preamp, they are just a knob along with some high quality resistors.  Some of them include other features like switching.  Another advantage is that they will feed a balanced signal to the Mackies.

 

Anyhow, there's a category at Musician's Friend for them:

 

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/studio-monitor-volume-controllers

 


This only works of the source has a strong enough output to drive the speakers, if this is the case then yes this is the way to go.
Reply
post #7 of 9
10/2/11 at 4:12pm
Thread Starter 

well I'm still leaning rather or not I want to use the HRT Music Streamer as source for the speakers, depending on how good the TV does, but right now I'm leaning towards no.  The music streamer is definitely a powerful source, though.

Reply
post #8 of 9
10/2/11 at 4:20pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by TMRaven View Post

well I'm still leaning rather or not I want to use the HRT Music Streamer as source for the speakers, depending on how good the TV does, but right now I'm leaning towards no.  The music streamer is definitely a powerful source, though.


You can test it out if you can get some sort of software volume going, and then hook it directly up to the speakers, with the volume at minimum, and then turn it up slowly with sound playing, and see what happens.
If you get good results, a passive preamp will do, an active preamp will always have better compatibility and a bigger feature set though, some systems just don't work well with passive pres even if they have sufficient volume.
Reply
post #9 of 9
10/3/11 at 6:31am

A pre-amp stands for the pre stage before the amp, a pre-amp amps nothing you don't have to worry about power output, the hrt music streamer is fine it outputs over 2vrms so is suitable for any speaker amp or active speakers, the little dot is complety fine for a pre-amp it does have high disortion and will change the sound but thats because it uses tubes it's designed to that, you could go with the Behringer Xenyx 502 which adds nothing but a volume control, and eq and other things like channel balance if you need them, if the little dot doesn't work out.

Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home