lejonklou wrote: ↑2020-11-03 13:37
lindsayt wrote: ↑2020-11-03 11:12With some sources and power amplifiers, resistor based passive pre-amplifiers are a disaster. This is most likely to apply with certain phono stages. With many systems, especially those with digital sources, resistor based passive pre-amps are the most tuneful.
This may make sense in a sound- and compensation-oriented way of listening, but when judging musical performance with the Tune Method, what you're describing is nonsense.
lindsayt wrote: ↑2020-11-03 11:12
Linn Klimax KDS's are no better in terms of tunefulness than CD players / DAC's that can be bought for under £100.
Linn M140's are relatively untuneful speakers. Especially when playing music that features bass instruments.
It's bonkers preserving the tune with your source and amplification and then chucking it out in the final stage with the speakers.
The Tune Method and Source First are mentioned in the rules of this forum. Apparently you ignored the rules when deciding to contribute. I suggest you read them again and decide whether you're on the right forum.
What I'm describing on passive pre-amps vs active pre-amps is not nonsense at all.
It's based on extensive listening tests using the tunedem method.
Many sources have the voltage to push the signal through a stepped attenuator and into the input section of a power amplifer without detriment to the tune.
When you have that situation, passing the signal through transistors with a feedback circuit cannot enhance the tune.
Garbage in, garbage out. Also garbage in the signal path, garbage out.
I have not ignored the rules of this forum at all in this thread.
Source first applies in terms of tunefuleness.
Most tuneful recording, followed by most tuneful source, followed by most tuneful pre-amp, followed by most tunefule power amp, followed by most tuneful speakers as the order of importance in building a system makes a lot of sense.
When it comes to the most tuneful source, there is no correlation whatsoever between price and tunefulness when comparing a Linn KDS against certain cherry picked CD players and DAC's with linear power supplies.
This is something that anyone can make their own mind up on, by doing their own listening tests.
I realise that this may be shocking news to some. To hear that thousands of pounds invested in a KDS does NOT buy you more preservation of the tune than when you buy right at under £100.
Just because a Linn KDS is hugely expensive, that doesn't give it the God given right to be more tuneful than something else you can buy for 1% of the price.
It may also be shocking news to some to hear that passive resistor based pre-amps ARE more tuneful than active pre-amps - in the right system.
But that's what I've found with my extensive listening tests, using tunedem method.
Listening tests, which anyone here can replicate.
Source first makes sense. And tunedem is a perfectly valid way to evaluate hi-fi. But there is no correlation between getting World Class tunefulness at each stage of the chain and what you have to pay to get it.