I purchased an S 300 amplifier. I am using it with a ladder Bach preamp. For the moment, I’m connecting it with RCA connectors but plan on using XLR eventually. Bottom line is I’m getting very little volume out of the set up. I mean, I turned it 2/3 volume and still not much that should blow me out the room. With my old Integrated if I turned it halfway up, that was as loud as I ever used it.
2/3 volume and still not much that should blow me out the room. With my old Integrated if I turned it halfway up, that was as loud as I ever used it.
did you or your friend have a preamp to lend you for testing?, i used it with a passive preamp and it was amazing result, very musical and more base than my previous preamplifier. and now with a M7 clone, it is just musical and plenty of power!
maybe impedance from preamp is not wright for S300, one must be down and the other must be up, if i remember correctly.
but first try it with another preamp, a friend preamp, so you will have a third wheel investigation on what’s wrong!
When matching preamps to power amps, a general rule of thumb is for the load (amp) input impedance to be at least 10 times higher than the source (preamp) output impedance to provide a suitably flat frequency response. Many prefer using a minimum ratio closer to 20 to 1, or having an amp with input impedance 20 times or more greater than the preamp output impedance.
with respect and reserve, test it with another preamp and ask a pro, about it. PS offer great customer services, maybe a call to them, would help more.
S300 is: Input impedance - Unbalanced 50KΩ and Balanced 100KΩ
Mine on Ali it is: Remote ALPS RK27 Passive Volume Controller Passive Preamplifier 10K 50K 100K my choice to choose impedance when ordered. Mine passive preamp: when ordered for my Linn LK2 was 10k, but i had the choice to 50k and 100k. It will be my transitory passive preamp, until i have stack enough money for a PS preamplifier.
and an active preamp will have ticker mid and high, but for transitory my passive will do for me, and the s300 kick the bass, more than my previous preamp with my passive!
with respect, the only musical i had was the A1 Pankake toaster, kid burn his tiny hand and cat learn to don’t mess with HiFi, so could not help you. And i never listen loud, sorry could not help.
have you check the Paul Video?
maybe go to the store who sold it to you and have it check
Integrated amp functions differently because of their integrated volume control. It is not easy to compare directly.
your preamp is able to produce 2Vrms output, and the psaudio should be driven to full power with 1Vrms. That means your preamp is able to ip the psaudio amp.
Also, below the 0dB point? The preamp is only attenuating what comes from the source. What sources are you using?
OP, Just a thought, could you have some sort of setting like ‘dac mode’ or ‘HT bypass’ or something like that accidentally on on your new preamp? Something that could defeat the volume or gain on the preamp? Does the pre have both ‘line level’ and ‘pre amp’ outputs? Are you sure youre plugged into the correct outs? Are you using high quality cables? Could those be bad?
I’m sure a call to PS Audio would help troubleshooting.
Half the volume is only 3db. I remember years ago back in the ‘70s I was using a 50wpc Luxman integrated to drive my large speakers. I wanted louder and bought a 120wpc Marantz power amp, feeding it from the preout of the Luxman intergrated. I still wasn’t happy so bought a Luxman preamp that went to 7volts output. That solved the problem. Whatever the source is, a unity gain preamp will only ever cut the volume so you’d need the volume control at maximum not to cut the volume.
Yeah, I just found out that my preamp has Unity gain so it doesn’t work with the S 300. My question is what kind of amp would work with a unity gain Preamp? The S 300 is what I would consider a Pretty “ Standard” power amp, so what kind of power amp would work with a unity gain preamp?
So I did borrow a preamp and that solved the Problem are I would say the mystery as to which component I was having issues with. What I found out is that this preamp I have is a Unity gain preamp. It doesn’t increase the volume can only decrease the volume. But I don’t understand is what kind of power amp do you use with a Unity preamp? I mean Are therepower amps with volume controls on them. I’ve got an email into PS audio. They are the ones who made me aware that this is a Unity gain preamp. I’m gonna end up sending it back unless The distributor can give me some ideas as to how it would make it work with this power amp. I’m just kind of flabbergasted that I could buy a standard power amp and what I thought was a standard preamp and did not work together. That’s crazy.