pre-amps and monitor selection

[smak]

was looking into some vintage stereo preamps and was wondering..

a preamp still requires an amp for the best sound right? but these vintage units sometimes have 20w or so which should be plent in some cases no? wont hooking up an amp just amplify an already strong signal and create noise?

also i'm a little confused about monitor selection on various receivers, integrated amps and preamps. eith er 1,2 or A,B.. what are they for? do people have two different sets of speakers in their homes and they prefer one set sometimes to others?

if i have a set of speakers i want to run, as well as a sub with plate amp.. can i run A or 1 to the left/right speakers, B or 2 to the plate amp on the sub and select A/B or 1/2 to run simultaniously? is this ideal?

and finally do all units with seperate monitor selection have the ability to play both simultaniously?

let me know if i'm not making sense

 

[bpape]

You're not making sense

Seriously, a PreAmp is just that - a preamp. A real preamp has NO power amp and MUST have an amp connected to it in order to drive the speakers. What you seem to be describing is an integrated amp - basically a receiver without the tuner section.

As for 'monitors', I assume you're referring to speakers. Listening to A, B, or both is dependent on the individual piece as to what is available to you.

 

[smak]

alright thats what i thought about preamps. i guess in general they are lower powered units that would require power amps for any real volume.

so now A,B.. whats the point of this feature on preamps? do the outputs sound the same? if you can have both selected at once, is it a good idea to do so for long periods of time?

 

[bpape]

Again, you need a power amp to have ANY output. A preamp by itself will not drive any speaker.

As for A and B on a pre-amp, that would have to be connected to 2 different power amps so you could have 2 different zones (or different channels of a multi-channel amp). If the pre-amp allows you to select BOTH, and your amps are set up right and matched impedance wise with the speakers, there should be no problem running A+B all the time - it's really just like 2 totally different systems being fed from the same source.

 

[smak]

cool thanks for the info

 

[Francious70]

Pre-amps step up the voltage of the signal, power amps step up voltage AND current.

Paul