Pre amp suggestions for Bel-Canto Dac2

[Dr.Love]

This won't be done any time soon but I am wondering what preamps match up well with the Bel-Canto-Dac2 and why? At the moment a MOTU Ultra Lite interface is acting as the preamp and controlling the volume. Would it even be worth it to eventually upgrade?

 

[Dr.Love]

OK I'll narrow the question, lol. Would it be worth it for me to save up for a Bel-Canto pre-3 preamp or would it not make all that much difference to the sound quality?

All opinions and guesses welcome! lol

 

[Dr.Love]

OK well thanks for the suggestioins and info. lol Guess some people would rather have their period over what someone else's opinion is over cables than contribute something constructive......lol

 

[stryker]

If this dac is as smooth as it's supposed to be, you also need to get into what your amp and your speakers sound signatures are and go from there. If I'm not mistaken, I think that a direct connection to an amp is the best way to go. However, the whole impedance mismatch is something to consider when driving your amp/speakers this way. You'll need to do some research on the input impedance of your amp and make sure it's a lot higher than your DAC's output impedance.

Otherwise, an active pre is the way to go and you can't beat the synergy of a system that's voiced to go together like a Bel Canto DAC and Pre combo.

I think everyone has their opinions so do some research and poke around Audiogon, Audio Circle and other forums to see what the latest buzz is. Ultimately, however, only really good speakers are going to yield the differences between high end components. The tube amp sound vs. ss amp sound is the other big distinction to consider.

 

[lini]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dr.Love /img/forum/go_quote.gif OK well thanks for the suggestioins and info. lol Guess some people would rather have their period over what someone else's opinion is over cables than contribute something constructive......lol

Instead of being sarcastic, I'd rather recommend you to rethink your question and what info you provide for it to be sensibly answered. I.e., if you don't get helpful answers on a question here on Head-Fi within reasonable time, chances are very high that your question is unclear/doesn't really make sense or that you haven't given enough information for a good answer. In your case that means: It is already unclear how you're so far using your Motu as pre-amp and volume control for your Bel Canto (do you use the Motu as digital transport and volume control that feeds the Bel Canto - or are you feeding the analogue output of your Bel Canto into the Motu???), and you aren't providing any info about the rest of your system chain (neither in your original question, nor in your profile).

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini

 

[Dr.Love]

Thanks for the replies!

To be more specific, I'm using my pc as the transport (cd player) out from fire wire of the pc to the motu, then spdif out of the motu and into the Dac2 and rca out of the dac2 into Genelec 8030a active speakers.

What would the advantages of a tube pre amp be, warmer sound, or more analog sound signature? Would it even be worth it to buy a good preamp, because I do have an Oppo player here that I was thinking of using as the source if I do go the preamp route.

 

[Dr.Love]

Dear Diary, over the summer I purchased an Audio Research LS8 mkII linestage tube pre-amp and my suspicions were correct, it sounds wonderful.