The Importance of The Preamp To Bass Response

[StevieB]

I use separate components in my 2 channel setup (Preamp / Amp / Speakers).

I am wondering just how important is the Preamp to delivering good bass response compared to the other two components?

[wkhanna]

Bass performance is V dependant on the ability to move a lot of air V quickly. The best way to achieve that is typically with speaker (woofer) surface area and sufficient amounts of current.

Pre amps will typically have more effect on characteristics such as coherence, soundstage, depth, the focus and position of individual instruments and voices, the ‘air’ around the instruments and the ability to make the source sound more like ‘real’ music.

Do not take the importance of a pre for 2ch music lightly.

as always, JMHO, YMMV

[mjb]

JMHO - just my humble opinion
YMMV - your mileage may vary
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my 2cents:

An Amp makes little signals bigger.
A Pre-amp makes (shapes) little signals.

Therefore, the pre-amp is the most important component after the source device.

[Nolan B]

JMHO - just my humble opinion
YMMV - your mileage may vary
------------------------------------

my 2cents:

An Amp makes little signals bigger.
A Pre-amp makes (shapes) little signals.

Therefore, the pre-amp is the most important component after the source device.

So with that logic there is no real "bypass" using analog bypass inputs on preamps, processors and receivers. They will all very in sound quality, and it seems very significantly.

I have really compared one to the other and just always thought the analog inputs when set to bypass were only subject to volume control.

[mjb]

So with that logic there is no real "bypass" using analog bypass inputs on preamps, processors and receivers. They will all very in sound quality, and it seems very significantly.

Thats correct :T
If there's something in the signal path, the signal will be altered. FACT.

"BYPASS" is something that has changed meaning in the digital age. Now it means you bypass the process of analogue to digital conversion, so you can mess with the signal in the digital domain and then convert it back to analogue.

"Bypass" used to mean a 10K LOG pot across the input - a passive attenuator - and nothing more. Follow it with a unity gain stage and you have your pre-amp.

The original poster is not asking about extracting the .1 channel (LFE) in a dolby (or other) stream, so we're not talking about a processor.

So, I'll stay with my original statement: a pre-amp is the most important device after the source, in terms of signal shaping.

[StevieB]

Bass performance is V dependant on the ability to move a lot of air V quickly. The best way to achieve that is typically with speaker (woofer) surface area and sufficient amounts of current.

Pre amps will typically have more effect on characteristics such as coherence, soundstage, depth, the focus and position of individual instruments and voices, the ‘air’ around the instruments and the ability to make the source sound more like ‘real’ music.

Do not take the importance of a pre for 2ch music lightly.

Great explanation, that makes a lot of sense to me.

[wkhanna]

Do not take the importance of a pre for 2ch music lightly.

I totally agree with mjb

[bigburner]

StevieB, I think that your choice of speakers plays the biggest part in delivering the bass response that you prefer.

Nigel.