TMR is where I bought that Pass Labs XP22 this summer. So yes I check their inventory often. Kick myself for not acting on a Benchmark LA4 they had a week or two ago. Gone now.
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This may assist others in providing suggestions, I do not know it’s sound.
I good you get a chance to try the Benchmark and share your impression.
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It really doesn’t make sense that adding a preamp could add anything. Best thing a preamp could offer is transparency. So why add it? But, I hear a massive improvement with mine. Edgar says I don’t need a preamp since there is the best preamp ever inside his magic Box. My bunny gave me a chance to see when she disabled my preamp. While using the BACCH as a preamp I had zero complaints. Everything seemed what it ought to be. When my preamp was restored it was night and day better. No Question Abouf It. Eelco said the same thing about his MU2. I tried that without the bunny’s actions. Same story, in each case, everything sounded splendid. But adding my preamp just rules.
I have seen the inside of the PMG and I liked what I saw. I haven’t heard one yet.
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I’ve heard this over and over again, add the right preamp and the sound jumps a level. To hear that from so many makes me think there must be something to the idea. I just haven’t experienced it in my system yet. It makes me think that the right preamp has to be very, very special for this to be true. Sure makes me question ever bringing an analog source back to my system. If I weren’t so invested in it already from earlier times I would be all digital for sure.
Of course that’s part of the dilemma, right? Even in an “all digital” system, you have analog out to the power amp and speakers. And so what you’re really saying is an all-digital source.
I think it’s helpful to view it in those terms because, at least for me, it makes more sense in that context for the preamplifier to play such a pivotal role in the system sound quality—even an all-digital system.
Because, truth is, it’s an analog system with a digital source. 
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Need I mention you do have one helluva preamp. Not that Bacch or Grimm are slouches by any means. As a wise man once told me, your ears, your music, please yourself.
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This ^^.
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I have the same reaction as Al. Putting in my Esoteric C-02 preamp makes a tremendous improvement to the sound. Much higher resolution and everything just sounds so much more real. But when I put in my Bruce Moore Companion tubed preamp, everthing sounds fatter and more obscured. I wouldn’t put in a preamp anything less than like the quality of say a BHK preamp or it will just muddle the sound of the Dac.
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In the day the Bruce Moore was a fine preamp, now as you admit a bit colored. I had the Audible Illusions Modulus 3 and 3A tube preamps. Great when CD playback wasn’t, as it helped make the experience less painful. The tube gear is now gone. Replaced with Vitus solid state, an entirely different experience.
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It just doesn’t make sense to me though. A preamp is supposed to allow you to switch inputs, and control volume. Some lads use tone controls, I do not believe my preamp offers them. Anyway, how can a preamp add something to the sound? At best, one would hope it doesn’t detract anything or add noise. But make the sound better? How. What allows it to make improvements? And yet time and again I hear good preamps do exactly that. Weird.
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You’re right that it doesn’t add anything (or at least shouldn’t). So what might it be contributing? Perhaps its duty as the gatekeeper is more important than we imagine it to be.
But, before we dive into particulars, let’s eliminate some obvious impacts like driving long cables. I have long been an advocate of long interconnects and short speaker cables. This choice makes a big difference, IMHO, and when this scenario is in place the benefits of the preamp become pretty clear: driving those long cables properly and without impacting the sound of the sources (we started down this path years ago when we built passive preamps that had no ability to drive long cables. The benefits of adding the preamp gain stage were obvious).
But let’s imagine a system like we have in our Listening Lab—short interconnects and short speaker cables. Adding the PMG pre to this setup makes an instantaneous drop of the jaw. Why? And, to be honest, I am not quite certain of the answer. I have my guesses, but it is truly a fascinating subject.
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So my understanding of speakers,at least with coils, is that they can send “stuff” back to the amp. Might the amp the pass something back up the chain where then a preamp would act as a buffer?
I don’t understand what so many reviewers say about preamps being “invisible” and “adding nothing”. How do we know that we are getting all the information properly delivered from our source? It’s like the goofy cliche’ “as the artist intended”. Really? Were we at the recording session?
I’m looking at my preamp that comes in three boxes, power and switching, gain channels left and right. We would all agree that power is primary importance. And the gain channels deliver voltage and current gains. This to improve impedance matching, preserve things like damping.
And knowing the design philosophy of the designers of my preamp, I wouldn’t doubt that the class A circuit adds some even order distortion, which I prefer.
My preamp is the heart of my system.
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Good thought but unlikely as the power amplifier would stop any of that from entering.
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but don’t some amps (like the new PMG beast) have feedback from the output to input stages? That was what triggered my thought.
Indeed they do (though the new PMGs have very little). But, while that sounds like it could interfere it’s unlikely since it comes into a differential pair and is isolated by that pair.
Thanks for the feedback, as always, very informative.
By the way:
Ortofon LMB → Rega P8 → Stellar Gold Phono → Stellar Gold Pre → M700 → FR20
Most unbelievable realism I have ever heard outside of being at a live performance.
Thanks to Alison, QRP, and Paul, Chris and the rest of the team at PS Audio!
Jim Whitesell
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I have the SACD of this and 100% agree.
You also might like AK&US’s new album, Arcadia, as well. A studio version but well recorded. Nice to hear you are having peak experiences.
Love Arcadia music as well, but the mixing and mastering not so much. Problem with sound booth recording in studio is that the sound stage and realism hangs on the mixer. Believe the mixing and mastering for Live on the recent vinyl reissue is different from the SACD but I only have the vinyl.
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