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| Letters -- September 2003 To preamp or not to preamp September 26, 2003 To Ross Mantle, I enjoyed your article ["Quick Everyone, Sell Your Preamps"], and I would like to add perhaps a somewhat different perspective to the preamp/no-preamp debate. Often passives get a bad reputation, I think, for faults that lie with the source. Most sources, and this includes so-called high-end CD players, simply will not do an adequate job of driving the input stage of an amplifier. We have tried several players run straight into the Audio Research 100.2 amp, along with a couple of other amplifiers with lower input impedances, and found that the same problems persist: flatness, loss of midrange detail, and a fair sampling of odd-order distortion that seems to be especially annoying to females. The "simpler is better" mantra does not always apply. In fact, I think it fools us a bit, because on one level it does seems to make the most sense. However, when you think about the cost and components involved with driving your input stage with a preamp versus a source, it seems counterintuitive to think that the source could do as good a job as a preamp. I think that the question is not so much the number of stages as it is the quality of stages. In an ideal situation, you would use the fewest and the best. Isolating the source as much as possible appears to remove much of what it cannot do well from the equation. It really makes little sense to drive an amplifier directly, unless you have a source that can do a better job than a buffered preamp. I have yet to hear any that can do this, but that does not mean that there isn't one out there. Joe I've heard the kind of thing you describe when running sources direct to power amps as well. Nevertheless, in my own system, my dCS DAC sounds better direct than any preamp-type component (actives and passives) I've tried except the AVTAC Pasiphae. A full review of this unit is coming soon....Ross Mantle Prana Wire? September 15, 2003 To Mike Silverton, I just took a look at your review of the RS Audio Palladium interconnects. Very interesting. It made me wonder if you've caught up with the Prana Wire products, at the same or higher price levels. Prana Wire connected the HE Show system featuring Alón Lotus Elite Signature speakers (which I have) with deHavilland 845 monoblock amps. Amazing purity. Carl Marchisotto was just shaking his head over them. I think the sum of the Prana wires was $21,000. I'm using Ric Cummins' Jaden Signature interconnects at present, all silver, $650. Seem awfully good to me, and it's been "suggested" they may better the Nordost Valhallas. Before that I had a pair of Insound/Mapleshade minimalist copper ribbons in prototype form, around $1700. I like the Jaden better (Ric is a friend of mine). But the RS Silvers sound like a dynamite bargain. The Alón Lotus speakers are quite amazing. Alón has piled up more great reviews on the Lotus line this year than any other manufacturer I've seen, including a brand-new rave by Hi-Fi Review. Good listening! Dave Sturdevant I have not had the pleasure of the Prana Wire you mention. Perhaps that's just as well. Their purchase price would go great lengths to accomplish what my wife and I have planned for this old house of ours. When I got to your name and address, in light of the high-end gear you own and are familiar with, it did occur to me that Alaska cannot be quite as I remember it from a story or two by Jack London. Wishes for good listening returned in kind. Best regards....Mike Silverton Palladium vs. Palladium September 8, 2003 To Mike Silverton, I am an Italian audiophile and first of all would like compliment you on your reviews -- always accurate and convincing. Having read your review of the Silversmith Palladium interconnects some time ago and now of the new RS Audio Palladium cables, I am curious to know how they compare given that they use the same conductor and also given the great difference in price. Thanks for any information your will provide. Fabrizio And thanks returned, Fabrizio, for your most kind words. RS Cables' Pure Palladium interconnect is the one I'd recommend if only because, audio-wise, Silversmith's principal is hors de combat. As a reserve naval officer, he's been reactivated and has had to put his business on hold. If this helps you at all, the RS Pure Palladium is the interconnect that stayed in my system. It's a spectacularly clean, open and swift connector....Mike Silverton
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