It must be all about the Pre Amp or my old Hafler 9180 is no slouch

[7.62]

Ok I may have threw that post, but thru quite a bit the last few days. Buried a son in law. And S is the word. No need for the attitude.

 

[Mister Pig]

Ok I may have threw that post, but thru quite a bit the last few days. Buried a son in law. And S is the word. No need for the attitude.

I am not sure what this post relates to, but that part really isn't that important. If its something I wrote it certainly was unintentional, and did not mean any disrespect to anyone in this thread.

I am genuinely sorry to hear of your loss of son in law, and I understand how difficult this is to go through. I wish the best for you and for your family, and hope that some bit of peace can find you and yours during this somber time. I lost my Dad almost a year ago, and I miss him every day. Take care, and hope tomorrow can be a little bit better than today is for you.

Regards
Mister Pig

 

[sx-70]

Think he was referring to the spelling correction above.

I check out the goings on at Audiokarma when I'm feeling happy and I also check in when I'm down. It's a nice place to escape for a little while either way. Hope you can get your mind off the heavy emotions you are going through 7.62, even if for a moment.

 

[nyhifihead]

the hafler 9505 has an excellent differential circuit design by jim strickland of acoustat. the lower power 9xxx series were modeled after the 9505.

the pxxxx series were also slightly tweaked versions of this trans nova circuit, and are excellent performers as well. I own a p4000 (200wpc) and 2x p7000 (375wpc)

I've always been seriously impressed by the hafler transnovas, especially for the price they sell used, build quality is stellar! your 9180 truly is no slouch

9505:

p7000:

 

[Hyfi]

So a few funny things happened last week while the Hafler was in my main rig.

First, one day last week my wife messages me to say that something is really wrong and that she is hearing a bunch of distortion on the left channel. All was fine 12 hours before as I listened into the night. I told her to leave it on and I would look when I got home. I asked what she was playing, and it was one of the Led Zep disks from the old 4 disk box set. So when I got home I put the disk on and hit play. Sounded ok to me. She says it was track two, so I FF to that, and again sounds like I would expect. It turned out that 1- Led Zep sounds like distortion from the get go, and 2-, she was not used to Solid State Bass.

So then over the weekend, my wife demands that I get that crappy amp out of the main rig and put the Counterpoint back in play. I did the swap and started playing some of the disks that I was enjoying with the Hafler. There really is no comparison when switching back to the CP, but for what it's worth, what it cost new, and what I intend to sell it for, I would say it's a pretty good bargain for a lower end setup.

At the least, I was able to make sure the amp works and is in top order for resale and also a reminder that Hafler Gear Rocks!

 

[Mister Pig]

So we start with this:

"My Counterpoint NPS400 which is a bit more refined and detailed, does not sound 7.5 better than the Hafler even tho it cost 7.5 times as much around the same year."

and end with this:

" There really is no comparison when switching back to the CP, but for what it's worth, what it cost new, and what I intend to sell it for, I would say it's a pretty good bargain for a lower end setup."

The way I read this little venture is that there is good sound out there for a decent price. But if you want upper tier sound quality, its going to cost you real money. Seems like what is true in the past is true again now.

Regards
Mister Pig

 

[Hyfi]

So we start with this:

"My Counterpoint NPS400 which is a bit more refined and detailed, does not sound 7.5 better than the Hafler even tho it cost 7.5 times as much around the same year."

and end with this:

" There really is no comparison when switching back to the CP, but for what it's worth, what it cost new, and what I intend to sell it for, I would say it's a pretty good bargain for a lower end setup."

The way I read this little venture is that there is good sound out there for a decent price. But if you want upper tier sound quality, its going to cost you real money. Seems like what is true in the past is true again now.

Regards
Mister Pig

The way it was explained is that you can't just divide the cost of one unit into the cost of the other unit to determine worth and quality. It takes lots of money to get the last few % points of nirvana.

There is no comparison in SQ after flipping back and forth, but yes, you can get some pretty decent sound without breaking the bank. The only problem is once you have it notched up, it's hard to be satisfied going backwards.

I plan to audition a PASS Int-60 soon for my short list. But what is nice to know is that my existing Pre is a great one aside from having to get up off my ass to turn up or down two separate volume knobs

 

[PabloTincho]

Is the preamp section in the 945 preamp the same as the 915 ?

 

[Akustic]

There is no answer to this .."more important" "less important" business .. never has been, and there never will be ..
It's all a chain and every component in the chain can affect the sonics of the output ..

This debate has been going since the 60's when I started studying HiFi ..
The answer is ... They are equally important ..
It begins with the input signal and proceeds to output.
You can't resolve what isn't there .. so begin with the source and improve from there.

 

[charles 1973]

I discovered how important the preamp was when I took it out of the chain. I had a Denon 1500II CD Player I always thought sounded good through my NAD 1600 Pre-amp/Tuner. One day I connected the CD players variable audio outputs directly to my Audio Design PA100 power amp.

Now it sounds as if a blanket had been pulled off my Energy Pro 22 Monitor speakers. Vocals are much more coherent. The soundstage is wider and deeper with more separation of instruments. The only problem was despite the CD players 2v output being able to push the power amp to its rated power on paper, It came up short. But still played plenty loud. I'm guessing the CD players 2v output is at 100% modulation, and Some CD's don't even come close.

So I replaced the the separate preamp and power amp with a new Bryston B100SST integrated amp (replaced by the B135 SST3 now) in 2009 and never looked back. This amp just gets out of the way, all it adds is gain and absolute bass control. It's not warm, or cold, or analytical sounding. What ever you feed it you'll get back, for better or worse.

The NAD Pre-amp/Tuners sound quality was quite good overall for the price it had a good FM tuner and a respectable phono stage.

 

[gadget73]

Old thread but it reminds me of something I read on here, can't remember who said it, but "a preamp is where good sound goes to die". I like and use preamps but bad ones definitely can make everything sound lousy.