cliveb;301788 Wrote: > This thread is in danger of leading the casual reader to completely the > wrong conclusion. I perceive a number of people here now think that a > preamp is always required. > > [elided] > As for the danger of a software fault blasting your speakers with full > scale white noise: again, if you've set up the gain staging correctly, > you should be OK, although I will acknowledge that the tweeters could > be in peril. But the danger of this full scale white noise appears to > be exaggerated. I have been running an SB2 for 3 years and a > Transporter for 18 months, and have never once experienced this > problem.
I agree with Clive. I recently bought a McIntosh MC402 power amp and run the TP straight into it. My system hasn't sounded this good since I left analog in the early 90s. I sit there and just *listen* to the music. I haven't sat through whole CDs like this for many years. My speakers are inefficient at 86 dB. I didn't have to add attenuation. The sound at full volume (TP at 0 dB) is just about as loud as I need to hear it. The amp has more in it and this is part of what I think Sean was touching on when said the voltage levels weren't matched. That is, a preamp would match the output of the TP voltage levels better to the input of the power amp and my system would get louder. Right now full volume usually runs about 40 watts average wattage (with much higher peaks) on the 402. One interesting thing is I bought some Cardas Golden Reference XLR ICs thinking I would get 3 more dB into the amp but it turned out the volumes between the RCAs and the XLR connection was essentially the same. Maybe McIntosh attenuated to match. Clearly a sound improvement across the spectrum though. Costly but a noticeable improvement over my $140 cables. I had planned to buy a pre-amp but my system is sounding so good I'm in no hurry to touch anything. With the size of the Mc402, I don't have any room for a pre-amp either. I'd still like to get one if I could figure out a WAF way to arrange my components. Two things I'm missing are the tone controls for those rare occasions when I play some overboosted-highs "remaster" and for the 12v trigger - the McIntosh amp must be manually turned on and off without it. I also wish the TP had more volume steps. The lowest volume level is still a little loud - it's low but not barely audible. I noticed the Mc preamps have 99 increments. Also noticed the little ticking noise when the TP volume goes up and down. I assume this is some sort of digital volume control quirk. -David -- wireless200 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ wireless200's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=11887 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=47520 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
