3 replies to this topic

[Video4Him]

Just some musing and questions about pre-amps:

My home system is a D-150A with an Crown IC-150A pre-amp.  It's a set up that has served me well for many years, and I'm very happy with it.
However, with the demise of my turntable and two tape decks, my IC-150A is woefully under-utilized.  I'm only using the tuner input and an aux. input for my CD player.
Although the IC-150A was (and still is) a great unit, I'm using an awful lot of rack space just to be able to switch between two inputs and to have output control.
I've noticed that many manufacturers aren't making pre-amps anymore.
I remember that Crown at one time had the "Straight Line" series which had a small pre-amp, but I know that's was discontinued long ago.
I wouldn't mind having a smaller pre-amp, but I'm not seeing very many of those anymore.
Perhaps I'm just ignorant, but are audiophiles just not buying separate components anymore?  Are integrated amps what most people are going with these days, or are they using their computers for pre-amping?

If my IC-150A ever bites the dust (or I just want to simply my system) what would I replace it with?  

I never want to part with my Crown power amp -- I can't.  Crown amps are about the only thing that can drive my Crown ES-212's!!  

Stan

[DGlass]

Stan,

We have been out of the home audiophile market for quite some time now with our devices like the FM series tuners and the SL/PSL Preamps and they are still very much in demand on the used market. However, most (not all) home systems now either uses an integrated unit like the Harman/Kardon AVR series or a multi-media computer.

The integrated units can include all the Dolby and THX processing as well as a tuner, preamp, input selector and amplification without all the racks and stacks of equipment and can be controlled from one remote. While the computer systems provide a multi-media interface to a Plasma/LCD flat panel monitor for digital media selection and adjustments.

I can’t say I know of anyone that still makes just a Preamp like the SL/PSL you might try Adcom but I think even they now include cinema processing.

[admin]

I can’t say I know of anyone that still makes just a Preamp like the SL/PSL you might try Adcom but I think even they now include cinema processing.

FYI, Mark Levinson (another Harman brand) offers a few choices for a single-space stereo pre-amp. Here's one, based on their pretty famous No. 32:
Levinson - No. 320S Stereo Pre-Amplifier

This unit does not have a surround processor built-in, but does interface with a proccessor if you want it to.

Hope this helps.
Chris Vice

[leemincy]

I can’t say I know of anyone that still makes just a Preamp like the SL/PSL you might try Adcom but I think even they now include cinema processing.

FYI, Mark Levinson (another Harman brand) offers a few choices for a single-space stereo pre-amp. Here's one, based on their pretty famous No. 32:
Levinson - No. 320S Stereo Pre-Amplifier

This unit does not have a surround processor built-in, but does interface with a proccessor if you want it to.

Hope this helps.
Chris Vice

Chris,

Sounds like you are suggesting Mark Levinson preamp as a nice complement to a Crown powerplant, possibly for home Hifi use. I myself have the Studio Ref I and am looking replace my Rane mixer with a decent balaced class A preamp, possibly a tube amp. Have you ever run the Ref I in hifi environment with a hifi preamp? Do you recomend any for the REF 1?

Thanks.
/Lee