tam@uiucdcsp.CS.UIUC.EDU (09/30/85)
Would anybody tell what the criteria are when you look for a preamp?
dca@edison.UUCP (David C. Albrecht) (10/02/85)
> > Would anybody tell what the criteria are when you look for a preamp? It should take leetle sounds and make them BIG. :-) Seriously, it depends on how much of a fanatic you are and what features you want. Most reasonably designed pre-amps have negligable distortion. Hum and noise is also usually not a problem with anything made by a reputable manufacturer. If you are a fanatic you will want one of the basic pre-amps catering to the market which are virtually straight wire with gain units. If you are not the feature content goes up. 1) Tone controls - I never use these but most preamps have them. 2) Loudness network - Again I never use them but no doubt some people do. 3) Tape monitors - These I do use, the more the merrier. 4) Separate source and record network - You can listen to one thing while recording another. This is pretty neat. 5) Subsonic and infrasonic filters - Can be useful for warped records and sources that you are not so sure of the quality of. 6) High and low filters - Forget it. 7) L-R, L+R, L, R output - L-R, L+R are handy in system setup marginally useful thereafter. 8) Switched outlets - Turns on the power amp, VERY useful. 9) Power amp feed through - Does speaker switching and headphone out can be handy. 10) Mute - Lets you lower the volume to answer the phone then restore to former level after hang-up can be nice. 11) MC input - If you have a MC cartridge can be useful though fanatics often eschew MC builtins. 12) Selectable loading for MM cartridge - Most MM cartridges are somewhat loading sensitive, gives optimum performance from your MM cartridge. 13) Stepped attenuator rather than potentiometer for volume control - gives better noise performance and doesn't degrade as drastically with age but limits volume to discrete steps. David Albrecht