Skunk;171911 Wrote: > I hope this isn't off topic, but something I noticed on the Rothwell > site is a claimed 10db SNR improvement by using the balanced > attenuators between a preamp and amp*. > > *"Although the attenuators can be used on the inputs of the pre-amp in > exactly the same way as they would be used on an integrated amp (with > the same benefits), alternatively they can be used between the pre-amp > and the power amp to even greater effect. When used this way, not only > is system gain reduced by 10dB, but the signal to noise ratio is > improved by 10dB." I think what Rothwell are trying to point out is that by adding the attenuators after the preamp, you reduce the noise of the preamp along with the signal, whereas if you put them before the preamp, you reduce the incoming signal and then get the preamp's noise added.
There are only two reasons I can think of why you'd ever want to put attenuators in front of a preamp: 1. The source component has such a high output that it overloads the preamp input circuitry. 2. Although the input isn't overloaded, the output gets to its maximum possible at very low volume control settings. In this case using an attenuator would allow a more reasonable range of use for the volume control. Apart from these situations, I can't see any reason to put attenuators in front of the preamp. It nearly always make more sense to put them in front of the power amp. -- cliveb Performers -> dozens of mixers and effects -> clipped/hypercompressed mastering -> you think a few extra ps of jitter matters? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ cliveb's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=348 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=31796 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
