Hey Stephe 👋 A friend of mine named Patrick, has a channel called pbthal (The Vinyl Archivist) who has ripped over 10,000 records. He’s got an uncanny ability to remember matrix numbers and which pressings generally have the “best” sound. This is of course a very subjective thing, but he does shootouts of different pressings where you just choose your favorite sounding ones, and the results are often what you wouldn’t have expected. He actually did a YES one a while back. Sometimes it’s a very common easily accessible pressing. I’d leave a link, but YT would just take it down. He’s easy to find on YT.

Hi Stephe. Love the topic, and a big reason I follow you. Synergy in the path is important, and makes a difference in sound. Pairing the right input device, preamp, power amp, cables, and (importantly) speakers should be optimized to the music, and the room. And, ALL of that needs to fit what each of us likes to hear. Ha, for us older folks, what we are still capable of hearing. Anyone who criticizes what gear someone else has, without actually listening to it in their space, is short-sighted.

Great points! I have three speciality preamps on my three systems and I still appreciated all your insights. Really enjoyed hearing them!

I see this stupidness many times as well in the Audiophile scene (i'm also one of them). Thanks a lot bringing that up. I can tell you by heart: many enthusiast just follow blindly YT reviews and never think about to learn some basics. It took me also some years and yes, I understand we are not all nerds about gear, but be serious to understand SOME fundamentals! So to differentiate between integrated and non integrated is quite important. Yes, I do own pretty expensive preamps and yes they make a huge difference in MY chain, but I'm using SS Monos (power amp) and strictly love to have the sources properly aligned in the preamp, as well precise volume control. THANKS!!

There are a number of reasons I use a pre-amp. It has a built in phono stage. It has one input selector switch for Phono/Tuner/CD/Tape 1/Tape 2. As well as a volume control (obviously), it has a stepped attenuator balance control. It has an output channel selector switch for Left/Right/Stereo/Mono/Reverse. There are two tape loops, and two output RCA sockets. It is a single, simple to operate piece of equipment. I can't imagine what kind of rats nest of wiring I would need if I had to remove it, and provide the same functionality with individual switches and pots.

I switch in my Schiit Loki for poor recordings, hearing the loss of transparency but getting a more pleasant tonal balance. Most of the time I bypass the EQ circuit.

Hi Stephe.. I’m still partial to a really good take no prisoners preamp.. Passives can sound sublime, but usually hit or miss to implement in a system (I prefer Inductive Volume controls, TVC or AVC..) I like them with some Lowther-based systems for example, or really efficient speakers (horn-loaded or not..) Usually amps with really High Mu and/or High Transconductance driver stages (WE 437A, or the low gm WE 310A pentode..)

The worst thing that happened to audio equipment in the last 10 years or so, is the loss of tone controls. I just do not hear the Vail, I hear more enjoyable music. Many speakers have complex impedances, many tube amps output level changes with frequency and those impedance changes. We test with a resistive load, but our audio drivers are not resistive, and with crossovers, and it is worse. So we see people “matching” amplifiers and speakers because of impedance mismatches. Meanwhile, just like You adjust the tone of the R8 by making it less bright, by adding capacitance to the global negative feedback, I often use tone controls. Please do not hate on tone controls. You don’t hate on the extra amplification stages of phone pre-amps, so why hat on when I add tone controls to a digital source. Or use the EQ in a streamer.

Thanks a lot for again very precious words for music gears' amateurs. Watched this video 3 times to comprehend and "feel the vein" of the theme thoroughly (- I'm from Moscow (RF) and Engl is not my native). This urges me to reconfigure my several music systems following your wise and very logical advice. With some of your previous videos you also urged me to buy a Digilent AD 3 kit to take an objective view of my existing gears, The kit appeared not so cheap, though, I'd say: abt USD 590 (it has to travel via Israel with the help of my friend there....) The promoted "Fragile" of the Yes immediately generated some simliar remeniciencies from my youth: "Not Fragile" (Bachman-Turner...) and their "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet". Or "You" and "My Impersonal Life" by Three Dog Night. Have a pleasure to listen, I'm sure you will also remember the sweet times. Wish you stable good health, Stephe.

Interesting topic. I guess at the end of the day, everyone has a different idea of what a perfect sound is. And I agree completely that certain gear plays well together then other gear. But you have to be careful with blanket statements about gear. For example, that moderate to high power amplifies don’t sound as good at low power levels. I agree that some amps are like that. I have heard speakers like that as well, but there are plenty of 45 to 70 watt or more amps that can really sing at low power. Conrad- Johnson has several, Quicksilver are two that I recall from my audio retail days. I also did some mods on a friend’s MK3 Dynaco’,s and they were great at low power, after the mods. Stock they were soft on the bottom, they lacked slam, but the mids and highs were nice. And I must admit, I didn’t crank them when they were stock to see if they sounded better than at lower power.

I use the preamp in my solid state integrated amp to the R8 because I run a sub, and my preamp has excellent sub control. It has adjustable crossovers so I can send whatever frequencies to the sub and R8. This frees up the R8 from having to drive the lower frequencies, and gives me total control of the bass volume. I can run either one by itself, or the two together. So that's one reason to do it. I also have tone controls on the preamp with a bypass switch, I agree with you on that, but occasionally have an older album that tone controls actually improve the listening experience.

Well done for finding the sweet spot for Fragile, it's a difficult recording to reproduce satisfactorily....

Would also love about your opinion about: tube driver stage and power amp separation as many very highend brands are offèring. I'd some discussion with a very experienced Tube DIY'er in Austria and he built some astonishing, non-standard tube gear for me. He always said to me: driver stage is the most important one and highest impact in sound/sonics. Power amp is straight forward. Sorry, i'm not an enginner 😊 Thanks a lot!!

I never thought about having too much power for the speakers. I have the Zu Audio DW6 rated at 95 dB sensitivity and my Cayin MT-12N EL84EH (10wpc) was more than enough for them. But I just got a Willsenton R8 (revised) and it performs great, but I don't normally go above the 9'o'clock position because my wife gets po'd. Since I didn't have a separate phono pre-amp I was running the turntable through my Yamaha integrated amp to use its phono stage which worked, but then I got an iFi ZEN Phono 3 to run into the R8 and it's excellent. Oh and I am using that same Audio-Technica AT-OC9XML cartridge and I think it was well worth the $600.

I watch your videos even if I understand only 10%-60% of what you are saying. 😄 Keep it up.

Many say the best (original) pressing is.. Yes - Fragile (1981) Vinyl, Atlantic, UK DR Peak RMS Duration Track -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DR12 -0.83 dB -15.74 dB 8:37 A1 Roundabout DR13 -2.56 dB -19.32 dB 1:43 A2 Cans And Brahms DR10 -3.02 dB -15.30 dB 1:40 A3 We Have Heaven DR11 -1.50 dB -16.24 dB 7:58 A4 South Side Of The Sky DR13 -2.29 dB -18.05 dB 0:38 B1 Five Percent For Nothing DR13 -1.42 dB -16.90 dB 3:33 B2 Long Distance Runaround DR13 -0.85 dB -16.80 dB 2:41 B3 The Fish (Shindleria Praematurus) DR14 -5.07 dB -22.66 dB 3:03 B4 Mood For A Day DR12 -1.65 dB -17.02 dB 11:27 B5 Heart Of The Sunrise -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Number of tracks: 9 Official DR value: DR12

I really enjoy your show... and The Yes 😎

Start with SPL you want; given the efficiency of the ldspkrs find the pwr amp power needed. Then given the voltage gain of the pwr amp find the needed voltage at the input of the pwr amp. Most of the time this value is less than a line level of a typical source... So there's no need to pre-amplify, rather to pre-attenuate 😂 I think that having the volume ctrl set to 8 or 9 at normal listening levels makes people believe to have a large amount of reserve in SPL...set aside that at 11 maybe the pwr amp Is already into clipping...set aside the tracking error of the two sections of the logpot of the volume...set aside the fact that the more you gain the more you distort

Very interesting, Steph. I have a pair of Klipsch Forte III's and am wondering what the best amp would be for them, I'm currently using a Bottlehead Tube Pre amp going into a Solid State Optonica SM-4646. Any thoughts would be great.

Nice 👍 agree with you great insight 👍

I’ll share my pre amp experience: I have a Brinkmann Nyquist DAC going directly to a Decware 341. The best I could do was high 70 Dba. I added a VTL pre amp and it was magic. So how much difference should anyone expect from tube rolling pre amp tubes? Ps The wisdom in this episode should be mandatory for all. Most Excellent.

Most ( integrated amplifiers ) have to much gain....Full power at 9 or 10 o'clock , this is a region were the volume pot does not performs in it's optimal range ... Some believe that the amplifier is so powerfull because the latitude of the volume knob is so low...with all risks of saturation and blowing up the tweeters ( at a party night ) A PP amplifier by ity's nature eats away part of the harmonic context of the music and sounds ( pair harmonics ) .........so instead of what we call adding distortion is rather trying to restore the natural harmonic context with adding primordialy second/pair hamonics as delivers a ( tube) preamp can deliver..it is one of the reasons why often a preamp gives a more musical perfomance to the system....... Another reason is adapting impedance and giving more current ability rather than gain...some sources have enough voltage output but lack current drive. best way may be what is called a buffer preamp , no gain only current gain and lower output impedance..( with volume knob if necessary , just like a regular preamp) But the simplest and defined as the correct way is the one Steph defends ............preamp + real power amp. Low level distortion on high sensitivity and or higher output power amps is mostly HARD distortion on power levels below 1 watt caused by the use of overal NFB......even if the amp does measure perfectly on the >>THD testing at higher output levels.. It is indeed correct to ,match the choosen speaker and the rightfull needed amp to drive the speaker......and inverse to choose a speaker adapted to the amplifier you love. sometimes some lower the output of a preamp or the input sensitivity of the amplifier by a resistive voltage divider or a potentiometer ..........but that is not the correct way to do it and is loosing gain (spoiling/trow away ) ... only to be amplified again after..... something like pusshing the gasspedal while having a foot on the brakes . Have a very nice day

Perfect timing! I am getting closer to ordering as simple and nice sounding single ended amp as possible (hint). My RME ADI 2 DAC claims to work especially well as a pre amp due to a step ladder output configuration. Frankly I don't doubt it. Questions: 1) do you agree? 2) Can a single ended amp use both a KT88 and voltage amplifier type, valve paring and a EL34 type paring or would that have to be two separate amps? FYI having spent years upgrading my system, Integrated valve amp expensive speakers etc the biggest single sound improvement of all of them came just last fortnight when I plugged my wiim pro into my new Sbooster mk 2 (with upgrade). I don't know that I have ever understood what Sibilance means ? I think in essence that it is an inclusion of other frequencies in any given frequency; Or to put it another way why when you are outside a room and you hear a voice you can instantly tell if it is human or not.(Volume aside of course). If that is the definition then I have got rid of it , Tambor is perfect. This separation of frequencies' does in my opinion make the sound seem thinner as many have said. If say you are listening to a 12000 hz note that now has no trace of say a 700 hz influence it loses some warmth but I changed my sub crossover from 40 to 120 hz and I have achieved the fantisy sound I have strived for. (Thus next step single ended amp) All the best ❤

Do I feel another awesome preamp build coming soon? Hope so!

I am one of those people who use a preamp with my R8. The R8s remote volume control doesn't have a fine enough action, it either goes too loud or too quiet when adjusting the volume so I use the preamp in my DAC instead.

I was gonna make a comment, but I stopped myself and thought what is your system speakers in the room. I think this would be a good way of being transparent and understanding your viewpoints better. What volume do you listen to music? For myself, most of my volume was things are between 75 and 85 dB but sometimes I will listen to music in the high 90s and then to 100 in my system will reproduce in room from 22 Hz and above. I’m not trying to be judgmental. I just wanna know where you stand all the best. Looking forward to an answer😊

hi skunkie id like to know where you buy the microphone cable you use in your amp .thanks

I don't know. I sure appreciate advice. I got a Mcintosh c200 preamp. It was at the time "the best preamp Mcintosh knew how to make. I like the XLR ins and outs. Muzishare makes one(w7) with a xlr in. That sounds appealing to me. I'm married to that preamp but always want new gear. Right?

Power amp, with no volume control - any power amp with no volume control - requires a preamp…

Would you recommend any passive switch? Thanks

Well said

Ok,I'm new at all of this but learning! I have an R8 ,rega p2 and a nobsound t3 preamp. I think it sounds like crap! What do I need to do to fix this? BTW your show is excellent. Keep teaching me. Thanks, Mike.

Stupid question but how do you connect multiple sources to an amp if one doesn’t need a pre-amp? I currently use a receiver and an integrated amp so I never had this situation to deal with.

Don’t you need a preamp to switch between your digital and analog sources?

exactly like me: retipped denon with a micro ridge stylus (another denomination for Micro Line) on an SUT to an ear834 clone and then to a reisong a10 modified after your specs, all through a pair of audiovector m3 signature. almost audio nirvana. but, please, could you tell us more about the SUT? but, from my part, I think that i might need a preamp to boost the gain because my sut is 1:10, the mc cart has an output of 0.25mV which, in the ear834, gives 2,5 mV and then, from the phonostage to the amp, due to the gain of 12ax7 might be max 250 mV whereas the reisong needs 700 mV to give full power, at least according to the published specs

I sent you a message on AK. I've got an amplifier for you to test.

I see what u mean with NOT adding unwanted 'coloration and distortion' when using a pre-amp, but what's ur thought on TVC's

👍♥️🫂. True