What is a Control Amplifier?
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Just a preamp
Semanon
Super Member
Welcome to AK.
In the 70's many Japanese companies referred to preamps as control amps, and power amps as main amps. This is reflected in product numbers for lines like
Yamaha:
M-80 is a main amp
C-80 is the matching control amp
CA-810 is an integrated amp referred to as a control amp
Kenwood
700M is the main amp
700C is the control amp
Pioneer
Exclusive C-3 is the control amp
Exclusive M-3 is the main amp
Did not hold true for every company and dropped off at different times for different companies.
In the 70's many Japanese companies referred to preamps as control amps, and power amps as main amps. This is reflected in product numbers for lines like
Yamaha:
M-80 is a main amp
C-80 is the matching control amp
CA-810 is an integrated amp referred to as a control amp
Kenwood
700M is the main amp
700C is the control amp
Pioneer
Exclusive C-3 is the control amp
Exclusive M-3 is the main amp
Did not hold true for every company and dropped off at different times for different companies.
bowtie427ss
Lunatic Member
A "control amplifier" is a pre-amp described by people who have no idea what they are talking about. Sony (I believe) was the first to brand their pre-amps "control amplifiers" for marketing reasons. 
twiiii
Lunatic Member
We sold a few of those 400 pre-amps and they had a lot of great features. Like the Blend control. I detested their push button ,mode switches that became intermittent almost over night in our dry polluted climate. But they would drive a line level load where Mcintosh and Marantz pre-amps would not for many years. So if you want tube pre-amp that is all tube and not a hybrid to drive todays SS amps with a a medium input impedance the 400 is the one to choose.
Lavane
Lunatic Member
Marantz did this also calling there preamps "Control Consoles".
It does make sense since they're not just preamps, with gain potentiometers and maybe a balance control and tone controls, they had input selector controls, filter controls, sometimes speaker selectors, stereo/mono/reverse stereo controls, etc.
It does make sense since they're not just preamps, with gain potentiometers and maybe a balance control and tone controls, they had input selector controls, filter controls, sometimes speaker selectors, stereo/mono/reverse stereo controls, etc.
No Money
Super Member
I've always thought there is a sort of hierachy.
1) Linestage, line level only (so no phono section) and no tone controls.
2) Preamp, basicly a linestage with a phono section but still no tone controls.
3) Control amp, linestage, phono and tone controls and sometimes filters etc. (as Lavane has noted).
1) Linestage, line level only (so no phono section) and no tone controls.
2) Preamp, basicly a linestage with a phono section but still no tone controls.
3) Control amp, linestage, phono and tone controls and sometimes filters etc. (as Lavane has noted).
1tumbleweed
Kozmik Kowboy
I've always considered a "control amp" to be a power amp with controls - ie, an integrated amplifier which includes volume, balance, tone. source switching - perhaps a phono stage but maybe not. A power amp is just an amp, no controls. A preamp is just the controls without the power, maybe a line stage, maybe not. Maybe a phono stage, maybe not.
As always, just my opinion, YMMV.
As always, just my opinion, YMMV.
I have a Jolida tube hybrid line-stage preamp, listed as Control Unit JD5T on the front panel. It has a source selector, and a volume knob. I also have a Kenwood SS unit, listed on the front panel as Stereo Control Amplifier C2. It has filters, defeatable tone controls, mono switch, a highly-regarded MM/MC phono-stage, headphone output, etc. It was intended to be the control center for a much larger system than mine, hence the name. Doesn't mean it wasn't a marketing thing, but it doesn't matter. I call them both preamps.
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