Best Options In A Balanced Preamp Under $1500.00?

[Saverio]

There are pre-amps that support balanced (XLR) outputs, which may be single-ended, circuitry-wise, internally, and then there are end-to-end, fully-balanced pre-amps. If you want a fully-balanced pre-amp it's going to be expensive, even used, since Emotiva discontinued the XSP-1. If you develop a hotlist of models you're looking for and watch Audiogon carefully you can sometimes find some examples under $1500, but they're likely to be rather old products, which could develop problems in the near future, and be expensive to repair.

Frankly, I think a fully-balanced design is overkill in this price range, and I'd recommend something new and reasonably priced, like the Parasound Halo P5. The Benchmark DAC1-HDR, which I use in a very high-end system, is only $1600 brand new. The Benchmark is not a fully-balanced design, but it measures better than many fully-balanced preamps and has balanced outputs.

Unless your friend's amps are a significant distance from the preamp balanced cables will likely have inaudible benefits too. For runs of less than ten feet any single-ended RCA cables will work just fine. If he can go without balanced cables he might find the Outlaw 975 pre-pro used as a stereo pre-amp might be all he needs at $550. It apparently measures incredibly well. I use a 975 for a small AV system, and while it is a bit ergonomically challenged in the remote control, the price is right and the build quality is pretty good.

None of these suggestions are likely to compromise the sound of any amp in any audible way.

I'm sure someone will pop in here and recommend your friend buy a cheap receiver with pre-outs and use that. Not me, but I'm sure someone will.

The XSP-1 was upgraded to a gen 2 and is available. Check the Emotiva website.

 

[Swerd]

I'm in the process of helping a friend who is a music aficionado, musician and budding audiophile build his first system. As a relatively young guy, his budget is somewhat limited. He will be using a pair of Monarchy SM-70 Pro monoblocks for amplification and now needs a balanced preamp, as those amps truly need a balanced signal for optimum sound performance.

Balanced connections are commonly used for live audio and in recording studios, especially for microphones with long cables. Long cables (30 feet or more) carrying microphone voltage (1-3 mV) signals can pick up noise induced by electromagnetic interference (EMI) or radio frequency interference (RFI). Balanced connections, along with the differential circuits required on the electronic gear, can cancel out this noise. Because of this, the recording and pro audio industry made life simple by standardizing on balanced connections with XLR type terminals for all its interconnect cables.

Read about it here: Balanced audio - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It seems that balanced connections are now fashionable in home audio for preamp-to-amp connections. Many higher priced examples feature these as a sought-after feature. The voltage levels between pre-amps and amps (in the range of 100 to 5,000 mV) are much higher than microphone level (1-3 mV). It is likely that interconnects at this level are much less prone to EMI induced noise, especially if they are less than 30 feet long.

Unless you have an unusually noisy environment, with high levels of EMI, there are no benefits from using balanced connections over standard RCA interconnects. I doubt if its worth the extra cost.

I find it odd that people focus on the connection between a preamp and an amp to use balanced connections. This is where the signal level is the highest before final speaker-level amplification occurs.