sxr71;561785 Wrote: > However this time it would be nice if consideration is given for uses of > the unit as both a SB player and standalone DAC. Which means IMHO an > analog volume control is important because adding a pre-amp to it would > be a pity and simple resistor attenuation won't work for people with > multiple sources. Simple resistor attenuation works fine for me using the digital inputs. I have a PVR on the Toslink input and a DVD player on the COAX input. The TP then feeds active speakers via 13dB passive attenuators. Granted the gain staging is not completely optimal for the PVR and DVD, but it's close and I frankly don't find the need for ultimate sound quality when watching TV/video (where the audio is MP2 or AC3 compressed in any case).
That said, a genuine analogue volume control (with remote operation, of course) would be theoretically better than using digital volume control. Not that I believe the difference would be audible in practice. Phil Leigh;561796 Wrote: > I just don't get this anti pre-amp prejudice. > What's a couple of high quality op-amps and a few resistors in the > scheme of things? > It's really REALLY not hard to build a transparent pre-amp. In fact > it's much easier than building a transparent power amp. (Sorry CliveB - > I know you disagree!) My stance on this is simply based on what I've heard over the years. Active preamps that I've heard are simply NOT transparent as a rule. As to why this is so, I'd say it's down to theory versus practice. In principle if you build a preamp with the minimal component count you mention, then it probably is fairly easy to build one that's transparent. But in the real world, preamps are required to do all sorts of things apart from signal switching and basic gain, and as a result they tend to have a shedload of circuitry in the signal path. Whether active preamps are more or less transparent than power amps is moot - you MUST have a power amp in the system, but you don't need a preamp. -- cliveb Transporter -> ATC SCM100A ------------------------------------------------------------------------ cliveb's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=348 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=80282 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
