Top Dog Preamps! What's the best of the best? The heart of your system.

[Peter Breuninger]

Let me start this thread with the Ypsilon PST 100 MK II active linestage. So far, in all of my years of listening, this is the unit of choice. Amazing dynamics, unreal layering, perfect detail to musicality balance, and to ice the cake... magic. Not inexpensive, but worth every dime, Euro, and Yuan. What's your best of the best?

 

[mep]

Peter-Can you explain what the six transformers are in the preamp?

 

[Peter Breuninger]

Interstage transformers are an Ypsilon trademark. Expensive to build, implement and design.

 

[LL21]

Hi Peter,

Have you heard Ypsilon's non-oversampling DAC? I have read extremely good things about it. My favorite preamp is the CJ GAT which is what i drive at the moment. I would love to hear the FM Acoustics 268 and Robert Koda Takumi K10.

 

[Peter Breuninger]

Yes, I would also like to hear the latter two units, but I'm going to be listening to the Audio Note M10 Signature next. The one reviewer likes the AR Ref Anniversary better than the Koda. No, I have not heard the Ypsilon DAC in my system... but can do so when time permits. I'm deep into the beginning of the YG Sonja project, and this afternoon they are sounding simply stunning on the Ypsilon Aelius monos. It's holographic, dear Mr. Spock. Wish you were all here by my side.

 

[docvale]

Since I've never A/B-ed preamps, I'd probably not be able to pick the cream of the crop. But, so far, the most impressive systems I've listened to had the VTL TL7.5 as preamp.

 

[Andre Marc]

Let me start this thread with the Ypsilon PST 100 MK II active linestage. So far, in all of my years of listening, this is the unit of choice. Amazing dynamics, unreal layering, perfect detail to musicality balance, and to ice the cake... magic. Not inexpensive, but worth every dime, Euro, and Yuan. What's your best of the best?

View attachment 9262

Ypsilon's co-owner and chief designer, electrical engineer Demetris Backlavas, believes that the key to a preamplifier's sound is the means by which it attenuates the signal it's fed. Instead of the more commonly used resistor attenuation, Backlavas uses what he says is a very linear, 31-tap transformer that Ypsilon winds in-house. By comparison, he says, attenuators that use even the finest-quality resistors tend to sound grainy and discontinuous because the in-series resistor converts voltage into current, while the parallel resistor turns current back into voltage.

Volume control/attenuation is the "key" to a preamps sound. Hmmmm.

 

[Steve Williams]

Peter

Is a preamp one you hear or don't hear

 

[LL21]

Yes, I would also like to hear the latter two units, but I'm going to be listening to the Audio Note M10 Signature next. The one reviewer likes the AR Ref Anniversary better than the Koda. No, I have not heard the Ypsilon DAC in my system... but can do so when time permits. I'm deep into the beginning of the YG Sonja project, and this afternoon they are sounding simply stunning on the Ypsilon Aelius monos. It's holographic, dear Mr. Spock. Wish you were all here by my side.

Interesting...i will be hearing the Audio Note M10 this weekend (i think). Yes, I believe it was Marc Michelson who preferred the ARC Ref to the Koda by a margin. BTW, I also have heard the Ypsilon monos driving the big YG Anat II. Quite a reference in many respects with the Boulder 1021 front end...holography being one of them, detail in the treble being another...for me, however, the overall presentation was a touch stiffer than the Rockport Electrocompaniet combination which i heard in direct comparison. I think a different front end might have been enough to swing things back towards the favor (to my ears) of the YG system. However as i heard it, while the YG/Ypsilon/Boulder combination was more resolving, i preferred the overall tone of the Rockport Electrocompaniet system. And although I now am beginning to focus on decay, detail and absolute resolution...i am not a detail freak and admit to be far more focused on the purity of tone to my ears and bass slam, with detail/decay coming later as my system has continued to evolve.

 

[Andre Marc]

Let me start this thread with the Ypsilon PST 100 MK II active linestage. So far, in all of my years of listening, this is the unit of choice. Amazing dynamics, unreal layering, perfect detail to musicality balance, and to ice the cake... magic. Not inexpensive, but worth every dime, Euro, and Yuan. What's your best of the best?

View attachment 9262

Passive mode:

From Michael Fremer's review:

http://www.stereophile.com/content/ypsilon-pst-100-mkii-line-preamplifier

"While I listened in both active and passive modes, the latter's output, even with the attenuator well down from its 0dB maximum level, was more than enough to drive my Musical Fidelity Titan amp and my relatively sensitive Wilson Audio MAXX 3 speakers In passive mode, there was literally nothing but the silver relay and the step-down transformer between the incoming signal and the interconnect to the power amplifier. The PST-100 sounded about as close to the source as can be imagined. All sources, analog or digital, were steps more transparent, three-dimensional, and closer to sounding "live"—or at least closer to the source going directly to the amplifier—than I've otherwise heard in my listening room."

BTW, curiously, he could literally hear no difference between passive and active mode. There goes the theory that an "active" preamp is an essential
part of of a high end system.

 

[mep]

Volume control/attenuation is the "key" to a preamps sound. Hmmmm.

To my knowledge, no one who knows a damn thing about preamp design has said that the quality of the volume control doesn't matter. Since the volume control is controlling the output voltage level of the preamp in an active or passive preamp, how it controls that voltage has vast importance to the final sound of the component. Again, a volume control in a passive preamp can only lower the input voltage from the source, it can never increase it.

 

[Peter Breuninger]

Peter

Is a preamp one you hear or don't hear

Sadly, we hear every component, nothing is "real". Lamm, AR, CJ, Yip, they all have a signature. It's what we like, what connects us to the music (the best). Reviewers use the term "straight wire with gain" for source components, I'm not sure I buy that given the amp-speaker combo is so profound.

 

[edorr]

Reviewers use the term "straight wire with gain" for source components, I'm not sure I buy that given the amp-speaker combo is so profound.

Always found that a puzzling characterization of the ideal preamp, since in 95% of real world listening scenario's the preamp does not amplify (i.e. ad gain) but in fact attenuates. A better term would be "straight wire with attenuation".

 

[Andre Marc]

I can sure hear the difference between passive and active mode. Passive is pale and somewhat opaque compared to the vibrancy of active. Active provides greater image density. I'll take Fremer to task on this one. I'm switching them right now... back and forth.

I was gonna ask you for your impressions! You beat me too it. As it is often repeated, highly system dependent seems..

Obviously for him, passive was a better match for his Musical Fidelity and Maxx 3.

 

[Peter Breuninger]

Passive mode:

From Michael Fremer's review:

http://www.stereophile.com/content/ypsilon-pst-100-mkii-line-preamplifier

"While I listened in both active and passive modes, the latter's output, even with the attenuator well down from its 0dB maximum level, was more than enough to drive my Musical Fidelity Titan amp and my relatively sensitive Wilson Audio MAXX 3 speakers In passive mode, there was literally nothing but the silver relay and the step-down transformer between the incoming signal and the interconnect to the power amplifier. The PST-100 sounded about as close to the source as can be imagined. All sources, analog or digital, were steps more transparent, three-dimensional, and closer to sounding "live"—or at least closer to the source going directly to the amplifier—than I've otherwise heard in my listening room."

BTW, curiously, he could literally hear no difference between passive and active mode. There goes the theory that an "active" preamp is an essential
part of of a high end system.

I can sure hear the difference (a big one at that) between passive and active mode. Passive is pale and somewhat opaque compared to the vibrancy of active. Active provides greater image density. I'll take Fremer to task on this one. I'm switching them right now... back and forth.

 

[Andre Marc]

Actually this is exactly what he said:

There was remarkably little difference between the PST-100's active and passive stages. I wouldn't want to be forced into a double-blind test here, but the active stage was just slightly darker, and more liquid or soft. Noise was nonexistent in passive mode, inaudible in active.

If there was any downside to the Ypsilon PST-100 Mk.II in active mode, I didn't hear it—whatever faults JA's measurements might show were inaudible.

 

[still-one]

Peter

Is a preamp one you hear or don't hear

If I didn't hear some improvement in sound quality by inserting a pre-amp in the loop, then I would have to say it is the one that you hear. For some a pre-amp may be necessary to access all of the sources in their system.

Jim

 

[MarinJim]

My preferred active preamp is the one I own: Concert Fidelity CF-080LSX2.

From Stereo Times:

"Personally, I feel as if my listening room has been graced by one of the best preamplifiers these ears have heard. It’s a true reference product and I tip my hat to Tsuda san and the team at Concert Fidelity. I have chosen The CF-080LSX2 preamplifeir as my 2011 “Most Wanted Component” of the year! Highly recommended!"

 

[egidius]

Audio Consulting vs the rest

Let me start this thread with the Ypsilon PST 100 MK II active linestage. So far, in all of my years of listening, this is the unit of choice. Amazing dynamics, unreal layering, perfect detail to musicality balance, and to ice the cake... magic. Not inexpensive, but worth every dime, Euro, and Yuan. What's your best of the best?

View attachment 9262

Well, my best version is the Audio Consulting silver rock. However, that has one input, is a passive transformer volume design, and is to be considered the SOTA of passives. I use it with a Wadia S7i long IC to silver rock, short ic to Audio Consulting MIPA, great system for digital only, with the Wadia offering the inputs the AC is missing.

For the rest cannot decide between the speed and fabulous phonostage of the Berning ZOTL Pre and an Audiopax M5, which has colours galore..
But this latter has in theory the possibility to do "timbre control" which is really a sort of gainstage, which allows you to integrate the pre into any system, or so they say ;-)
As expensive as this Audiopax is nowadays, it might well want to aspire for "the best"

 

[microstrip]

I can sure hear the difference (a big one at that) between passive and active mode. Passive is pale and somewhat opaque compared to the vibrancy of active. Active provides greater image density. I'll take Fremer to task on this one. I'm switching them right now... back and forth.

Peter,

What source and speakers are you using with the PST-100 Mk.II ? As it is a transformer based volume control, the levels at what is being operated and the characteristics of the source can make a lot of difference.

BTW, although the transformer is a passive component there is a too large difference between it and a resistive L attenuator to allow classing both in a common category labeled "passive preamplifiers".