First of all, thanks to everyone who is sharing their wisdom, experience, ideas and suggestions in this forum. It is a great way for neophytes, newbies and other wannabies like myself to learn a thing or two about to experience sound with quality a tad better than your regular AM radio station.
My question relates to how certain components fit together, and what purpose they serve.
I used to think about the integrated amplifier as the core of a system. It takes various signals and pumps these signals out to the speakers. Getting a little more adventurous, I've thought about increasing my budget to go with a separate pre-amp and power-amp.
My understanding was that the pre-amp was just the 'control panel'. This would be the unit that received signals from my CD-player or my iPod (I'll come back to this), and then with help from the power amplifier it would pump these signals on to the speakers. The pre-amp would therefore only need two buttons - volume, and a source selector (between CD-player, iPod, other inputs).
However, as I started to look into a proper pre-amp/power-amp combination I got very confused by the terminology - processor, pre-amp, stereo amplifier, monoamplifier, monoblock , balanced amplifier, etc. It seemed to me the majority of the power-amplifiers out there are 'mono amplifiers', and it seems like that is a good thing to drive a sub, but wouldn't a stereo amp be a whole lot better for the main speakers? So, while perhaps elaborate, does anybody care to remove my utter ignorance and explain what the different components do, what purpose they serve, and more importantly what I need if I simply want a good pre-amp + power amp to drive some 'decent' speakers?
Now on to the second part - the DAC. My understanding is that a DAC 'simply' takes a digital sound signal and turns it into an audio signal (which is all a speaker can understand). I would therefore think that a DAC would always be built in to either a CD-player, or a pre-amp (inside a digital line input). When do I really need a separate DAC? The best is probably to explain to me how a player, the transporter and the DAC work together, and why they would not all be incorporated into 1 singel piece of equipment.
(I'm also posting a separate but linked question about the new Wadia i170).
Help!
First of all, thanks to everyone who is sharing their wisdom, experience, ideas and suggestions in this forum. It is a great way for neophytes, newbies and other wannabies like myself to learn a thing or two about to experience sound with quality a tad better than your regular AM radio station.
My question relates to how certain components fit together, and what purpose they serve.
I used to think about the integrated amplifier as the core of a system. It takes various signals and pumps these signals out to the speakers. Getting a little more adventurous, I've thought about increasing my budget to go with a separate pre-amp and power-amp.
My understanding was that the pre-amp was just the 'control panel'. This would be the unit that received signals from my CD-player or my iPod (I'll come back to this), and then with help from the power amplifier it would pump these signals on to the speakers. The pre-amp would therefore only need two buttons - volume, and a source selector (between CD-player, iPod, other inputs).
However, as I started to look into a proper pre-amp/power-amp combination I got very confused by the terminology - processor, pre-amp, stereo amplifier, monoamplifier, monoblock , balanced amplifier, etc. It seemed to me the majority of the power-amplifiers out there are 'mono amplifiers', and it seems like that is a good thing to drive a sub, but wouldn't a stereo amp be a whole lot better for the main speakers? So, while perhaps elaborate, does anybody care to remove my utter ignorance and explain what the different components do, what purpose they serve, and more importantly what I need if I simply want a good pre-amp + power amp to drive some 'decent' speakers?
Now on to the second part - the DAC. My understanding is that a DAC 'simply' takes a digital sound signal and turns it into an audio signal (which is all a speaker can understand). I would therefore think that a DAC would always be built in to either a CD-player, or a pre-amp (inside a digital line input). When do I really need a separate DAC? The best is probably to explain to me how a player, the transporter and the DAC work together, and why they would not all be incorporated into 1 singel piece of equipment.
(I'm also posting a separate but linked question about the new Wadia i170).
Help!