Wont doing away with preamp improve sound quality?

[humblebee]

Suppose I have a DAC that outputs signal at 2V max.
It should be a better idea to pair a power amp straight away as removing one device (preamp) from the signal path should improve overall sound reproduction. Right?

 

[raghupb]

Hard to say. I have experimented this with a cheap passive preamp (basically a pot for volume control). Results are better, sound wise to the ear, when there is an active preamp.
Cheers,
Raghu

 

[venkatcr]

Suppose I have a DAC that outputs signal at 2V max.

Some DACs have pre-amps built in. You should look at the specs of the power amp. If it can work with ~2V inputs, you should NOT insert another pre-amplification in between. The DAC will work by itself.

Cheers

 

[doors666]

its not so simple. where will be your volume pot, at the input of power amp I presume.
More than the voltage level, its about impedance matching. many sources might have issues by driving a low value pot directly, pot also might have issues with driving the amp directly. It all depends, either decide by listening, or by looking at all the specs.
A 10k pot will present a 2.5k load to the source. The 2.5k impedance of the pot will be driving the amp. If your source has 1k output impedance, it might have issues driving a 2.5k impedance pot.
Sources will also have issues driving high capacitance cables.

 

[Kannan]

Suppose I have a DAC that outputs signal at 2V max.
It should be a better idea to pair a power amp straight away as removing one device (preamp) from the signal path should improve overall sound reproduction. Right?

I have a typical setup where the DAC as per specs puts out 2 volts.
But it is not able to drive my power amp well enough needing me to use a preamp.

It is not just about the voltage bit also to do with impedance.

 

[doors666]

A 10k pot will present a 2.5k load to the source. The 2.5k impedance of the pot will be driving the amp.

Sorry, that is not correct, a 10k pot will present a 10k load to the source, assuming the load resistance on the pot (i.e. the input impedance setting resistor of the preamp) is much larger than the pot value. The output impedance being 1/4th is the worst case scenario.

 

[Deleted member 15865]

I don’t know about the technicalities. But whenever I’ve tried that (through the digital volume control built into my CXN or via a passive volume control like Schiit Sys), I have found a significant loss in musicality and emotion though the sound gains more clarity. This is in comparison of course with the two preamps I have - the pre section in the Audiolab 8200A and the Lyrita DHT preamp.