[actimation]

I'm looking to start a speaker setup but i'm not too sure what I need. I'm stumped by the different types of amps: intergrated amps, pre-amps and power amps. Can someone please explain the purpose of each of these amps?

Thanks,
Mark

 

[Nick Dangerous]

http://www.audiovideo101.com

 

[actimation]

Thanks for the link! It helped alot.

But now I think I know what is the question I want to ask. What are the pros and cons of an intergrated amp over the pre/power combination (and vice versa)? Does the sound quaility improve or degrade with one over the other?

Thanks again,
Mark

 

[Audio Redneck]

Rule #1: seperate is better. (There are also numerous exceptions to the rule.)

Rule #2: a simpler design will sound better. (see the note at the end of Rule 1)

Usually you will get better sound when each peice of the system is its own little specialized and isolated part.

ideally...
The player does nothing but read the disk.
The DAC does nothing but DAC.
The preamp does nothing but control the volume and select the source.
The amp does nothing but boost the signal from the preamp to a level that adequately excites the speakers or headphones.

Each of these should be as sheilded and isolated as is possible/reasonable from each other so that, say, no RFI from the DAC crosses over to the PreAmp or Amp.

"Welcome to Head-fi! Sorry about your wallet."

 

[markjia]

What's your price range? NAD makes some good amps, there C350 is a very good entry level amp, and there Silver series are really good higher end models. Plus, NAD amps have a seperate headphone amp (of course theses can't really compete with dedicated headphone amps).

 

[andrzejpw]

What kind of a setup do you want? For music? Or for home theater?