Pre or Power

My latest audio journey got me thinking about, what is a fundamental question.

"What has more influence on the final sound in a pre/power amp set up?"

"The Pre-amp or the Power-amp?"

I believe that the pre makes a greater contribution and is therefore more important.

What do you think or believe?

Peace

:16:

however a power amp makes a big difference too, I too think a pre is more important.

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Originally Posted by Bernd

My latest audio journey got me thinking about, what is a fundamental question.

"What has more influence on the final sound in a pre/power amp set up?"

"The Pre-amp or the Power-amp?"

I believe that the pre makes a greater contribution and is therefore more important.

What do you think or believe?

Peace

:16:

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But I still lean to the power amp being more important. But clearly both make a contribution. It could be that power amps have been, in my somewhat limited experience, more variable in sound than preamps. But having recently ventured into tubes with a preamp, I realized there plenty of variability amongst pre's as well.

I'v tried 4 different pre-amps, one ss and three tube versions. The tube versions got me hooked on tube pre's. All 3 sounded significantly different from the ss preamp. Thats what made me think about the influence of pre's. I've still got the itch to check something else out though. I'm thinking about a minimalist tube volume control type pre.

Anyway, my big ss power amp does what it is told and does it well, so I am going with the pre as the influential member.

to me, the loudspeaker is a drum and the pre/pow amp is the player. if that's the case, pre amp respresent how skillfull is he and the pow amp will be how strong is the guy... Pre amp plays important role but not everthing.
Happy listening!!!

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Originally Posted by Feanor

But I still lean to the power amp being more important. But clearly both make a contribution. It could be that power amps have been, in my somewhat limited experience, more variable in sound than preamps. But having recently ventured into tubes with a preamp, I realized there plenty of variability amongst pre's as well.

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I'm inclined to agree with you. Previously I had believed the 2 to be more or less equally important. I don't anymore.
I have several power amps at my place, 2 pre-amps, 2 receivers, 3 integrateds (well, 2 are the same model though so only 2 I guess).
If I use the receivers/integrateds as pre-amps only, just as a point of reference and swap amps between them I get much more noticeable variabilty in sound.
I always assumed perhaps this was just coincidence. Too small as sample size. I've been experimenting with this notion off and on in stores when I've had a chance lately too.

I think there are some pre-amps that are just cheap and terrible, lose something in the process, or worse - try to add something unique. I think there's a reason why passive pre-amps are highly regarded. So in that respect, a "bad" pre-amp will have more influence on the sound quality than the decent amp it's connected to. I'd assume a good preamp connected to a bad, cheap amp would show us a bad amp can influence the sound too.

My local dealer was actually the first guy to suggest this to me maybe 2 or 3 months back. I thought he was crazy.
Just for giggles we tried 3 scenarios - A basic Denon a/v receiver (don't know them model but it had pre-outs and was priced under $600, and Bryston power amp, then a Bryston BP-26 pre with a budget AudioSource Amp 100 (nice budget amp, btw), then Brystons together.

Option 1 was better at every volume level than Option 2, which in itself was pretty good. Option 3 was obviously better still, which suggest to me pre-amps and or synergy still have "some" effect. Not huge night and day differences but the 2 store jockeys and myself arrived at the same conclusions independently so I don't think we were imagining it. A fun way to spend an evening, and keeps me re-evaluating a lot of the established schools of thought in audio.

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Originally Posted by kexodusc

which suggest to me pre-amps and or synergy still have "some" effect. Not huge night and day differences but the 2 store jockeys and myself arrived at the same conclusions independently so I don't think we were imagining it...

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I second that. I think the most often left out element is how the two work together. I've heard fabulous pres sound passable with the wrong amp and I've heard very pricey Krell amps sound marginal hooked up to a cheap preamp. The synergy between the two also plays a role, one that is often forgotten in the debates.