Everyone,

After almost a decade of being satisfied with my Rotel RB-990BX and
RC-990BX duo (amplifier/preamp), Marantz CD-63SE (CD player) and
Vandersteen 2 (speakers) -- I refer to these as my "lower-end of
high-end gear" -- I am now getting interested in moving into the tube
realm, especially DIY tube kits. I've already built one of those
Dynaco ST-35 amp clone kits, just for the heck of it, and am
impressed. Although it doesn't have quite enough oomph to drive the
fairly inefficient Vandies, it still sounds quite good (only a couple
times did I notice a lack of output power.) I now plan to build a pair
of high-powered monoblock tube amps which will be capable of driving
the Vandies or any other speakers I decide to use in the future.

Since the only input to the sound system will be digital audio (such
as audio CD), I've been thinking of dispensing with the preamplifier
and strictly going with a DAC and tube amplifier combination. For
playing CDs, I'd use a CD player with digital output to feed the DAC
(I assume that I can also feed a digital PCM signal from a high-end pc
sound card -- comments on this approach are requested.)

Do today's DACs (both commercial and DIY kits) have adequate line out
voltages and compatible impedences to directly feed a tube amplifier?
And what about volume control? I would assume that the only acceptable
volume control would be on the analog output side of the DAC or on the
amplifier itself. Since the monoblocks will not have volume controls,
that leaves the volume control on the DAC.

(One alternative I have is to purchase a high-end audio CD player with
a high quality built-in DAC with analog-side volume control. Do any
exist? How do the reasonably priced CD players from Rotel rate, both
for DAC quality and for volume control?)

As everyone should notice, I'm sort of spinning my wheels on this,
trying to make sense of what to do. I want to minimize the number of
components in my setup, while maintaining reasonable audio quality.
It does not help that I lack knowledge of some fundamental things,
so hopefully the replies, if any, will help me to better understand
these fundamentals and the various options I have.

regards,

Gary

"Gary Jensen" wrote in message
...
Everyone,

/cut/


(One alternative I have is to purchase a high-end audio CD player with
a high quality built-in DAC with analog-side volume control. Do any
exist? How do the reasonably priced CD players from Rotel rate, both
for DAC quality and for volume control?)

As everyone should notice, I'm sort of spinning my wheels on this,
trying to make sense of what to do. I want to minimize the number of
components in my setup, while maintaining reasonable audio quality.
It does not help that I lack knowledge of some fundamental things,
so hopefully the replies, if any, will help me to better understand
these fundamentals and the various options I have.

regards,

Gary

Try current Quad line: you have an excellent cd-p 99 with plenty of digital
inputs and VERY good digital volume attenuation
/disclaimer: I haven't found anything wrong with that connecting it directly
to number of different power amplifiers/

If your future system is an all-digital (meaning: digital sources only), it
may come handy as preamp.

It may be a bit more expensive than Rotel, but not too much so...
Specially if you consider its flexibility and comfort. Sounds very good too
(24/192 standard).

I have it at home and am currently thinking that it may be time to replace
my ever faithful NAD S500.

Keep us posted,
Regards,
J.


--
"I loathe people who keep dogs. They are cowards who haven't got the
guts to bite people themselves." -- August Strindberg

Ref: Direct or Preamp suggestion

Gary..you might want to look at the Adcom GFP-750 as an
alternative. It has the option to run "direct" or as
a regular pre-amp. It is a decent pre-amp by any
standard...might be able to find a used version
at a good price.

This would be fine if you later changed to some
less efficient speakers and needed some volume
added. I tried both "direct" and Pre-amp when
I first acquired my Adcom..for some reason the
pre-amp seemed more dynamic. Could be the levels
were not matched that well.

Good luck,

Leonard...

__________________________________________________ ______________

On Wed, 08 Oct 2003 18:02:12 +0000, Gary Jensen wrote:

Everyone,

After almost a decade of being satisfied with my Rotel RB-990BX and
RC-990BX duo (amplifier/preamp), Marantz CD-63SE (CD player) and
Vandersteen 2 (speakers) -- I refer to these as my "lower-end of
high-end gear" -- I am now getting interested in moving into the tube
realm, especially DIY tube kits. I've already built one of those
Dynaco ST-35 amp clone kits, just for the heck of it, and am
impressed. Although it doesn't have quite enough oomph to drive the
fairly inefficient Vandies, it still sounds quite good (only a couple
times did I notice a lack of output power.) I now plan to build a pair
of high-powered monoblock tube amps which will be capable of driving
the Vandies or any other speakers I decide to use in the future.

Since the only input to the sound system will be digital audio (such
as audio CD), I've been thinking of dispensing with the preamplifier
and strictly going with a DAC and tube amplifier combination. For
playing CDs, I'd use a CD player with digital output to feed the DAC
(I assume that I can also feed a digital PCM signal from a high-end pc
sound card -- comments on this approach are requested.)

Do today's DACs (both commercial and DIY kits) have adequate line out
voltages and compatible impedences to directly feed a tube amplifier?
And what about volume control? I would assume that the only acceptable
volume control would be on the analog output side of the DAC or on the
amplifier itself. Since the monoblocks will not have volume controls,
that leaves the volume control on the DAC.

(One alternative I have is to purchase a high-end audio CD player with
a high quality built-in DAC with analog-side volume control. Do any
exist? How do the reasonably priced CD players from Rotel rate, both
for DAC quality and for volume control?)

As everyone should notice, I'm sort of spinning my wheels on this,
trying to make sense of what to do. I want to minimize the number of
components in my setup, while maintaining reasonable audio quality.
It does not help that I lack knowledge of some fundamental things,
so hopefully the replies, if any, will help me to better understand
these fundamentals and the various options I have.

regards,

Gary

Look into replacing the present preamp with a high quality tube
preamp. You will get a tube sound without the drawbacks associated
with tube power amplification and still plenty of "oomph" to drive
your speakers. The preamplifier is the most often over-looked piece of
equipment when new audophiles start their quest for better sound. the
fact is that it remains the heart of the system, providing the first
stage of gain for all components and which all signals must pass. It
provides flexibility and control to the system. So in replacing one
component, you get both the tube sound, the quality upgrade and the
same convenient operation as if nothing had changed. Even a high
quality solid state preamp will give you these benefits, but it sounds
like you are pretty well determined to get into tubes, so the preamp
will do the least harm while addressing all of your ideas. Your
present CD player should then work just fine until it becomes the next
point of focus.
- Bill
www.uptownaudio.com
Roanoke VA
(540) 343-1250

"Gary Jensen" wrote in message
...
Everyone,

After almost a decade of being satisfied with my Rotel RB-990BX and
RC-990BX duo (amplifier/preamp), Marantz CD-63SE (CD player) and
Vandersteen 2 (speakers) -- I refer to these as my "lower-end of
high-end gear" -- I am now getting interested in moving into the
tube
realm, especially DIY tube kits. I've already built one of those
Dynaco ST-35 amp clone kits, just for the heck of it, and am
impressed. Although it doesn't have quite enough oomph to drive the
fairly inefficient Vandies, it still sounds quite good (only a
couple
times did I notice a lack of output power.) I now plan to build a
pair
of high-powered monoblock tube amps which will be capable of driving
the Vandies or any other speakers I decide to use in the future.

Since the only input to the sound system will be digital audio (such
as audio CD), I've been thinking of dispensing with the preamplifier
and strictly going with a DAC and tube amplifier combination. For
playing CDs, I'd use a CD player with digital output to feed the DAC
(I assume that I can also feed a digital PCM signal from a high-end
pc
sound card -- comments on this approach are requested.)

Do today's DACs (both commercial and DIY kits) have adequate line
out
voltages and compatible impedences to directly feed a tube
amplifier?
And what about volume control? I would assume that the only
acceptable
volume control would be on the analog output side of the DAC or on
the
amplifier itself. Since the monoblocks will not have volume
controls,
that leaves the volume control on the DAC.

(One alternative I have is to purchase a high-end audio CD player
with
a high quality built-in DAC with analog-side volume control. Do any
exist? How do the reasonably priced CD players from Rotel rate, both
for DAC quality and for volume control?)

As everyone should notice, I'm sort of spinning my wheels on this,
trying to make sense of what to do. I want to minimize the number of
components in my setup, while maintaining reasonable audio quality.
It does not help that I lack knowledge of some fundamental things,
so hopefully the replies, if any, will help me to better understand
these fundamentals and the various options I have.

regards,

Gary

In article ,
says...
Everyone,


.......snip.......

As everyone should notice, I'm sort of spinning my wheels on this,
trying to make sense of what to do. I want to minimize the number of
components in my setup, while maintaining reasonable audio quality.
It does not help that I lack knowledge of some fundamental things,
so hopefully the replies, if any, will help me to better understand
these fundamentals and the various options I have.

regards,

Gary

Just as a suggestion, I found a noticeable improvement resulted from
using monoblocs next to the speakers with very short power leads & long
interconnects. Some friends & I got interested & did some comparisons,
and with that setup almost any reasonable sized wire would do for the
power connection, so long as the plugs were good quality. It just
doesn't make much difference.
OTH, the long interconnects would probably have to be specially made to
fit. I made my own from PTFE twisted pair + screen, and the combination
appearedto match some fairly expensive cables used as short signal/long
power arrangements.
To get back to your original query, have you considered using a simple
passive preamp?

Dave