The preamp search begins.. but first the questions!

Dot40

Ok as some of you know I recently bought an Aragon 2005. Much to my disappointment I found out I needed a preamp as there was no difference in sound quality since it's resorting to 110w from the receiver. I found this out after calling Denon, contacting the person I bought the amp from, and then calling Tweeter. So my question is this. Is it possible to hook up a preamp to a receiver, the amplifier to the preamp, and then the speakers off of the amplifier? I have a Denon 2807 and like the HDMI feature. If so, what's a good preamp that supports 5.1 surround for around $800ish give or take? It's frustrating buying an amplifier and then finding out you need to spend a good chunk of money to hear the benefit... :mad:

Thank you all for helping this beginner out =/

george daniel

Uh,, there may be one on the FM for considerably less than 800.00 Acurus pre/processor :cool:

Dennis Gardner

Doesn't the 2807 have preamp outputs?

Systems

Dennis Gardner wrote:

Doesn't the 2807 have preamp outputs?

Exactly,why not just use it as the pre.

dkg999

Dot40 - I think somewhere you've gotten mis-communicated information. Your 2807 is a pre-amp and processor. I just looked at the spec, and it has pre-outs for all channels. I believe your Aragon amp is a 5 channel amp. So you would connect the center, front left, front right, surround left, and surround right pre-outs to the 5 channels of your Aragon. Then connect those speakers to the Aragon amplifier. Your rear right and rear left speakers can then be connected to those channels speaker terminals on your 2807. You should be all set to go if you have enough interconnects for that. The differences between using the amps in your receiver and the amps in the Aragon are going to be subtle, don't expect a drastic difference.

Dot40

I think I must have been misinformed. I'm a little surprised that three sources said to use preamps. I already had everything hooked up just as you said dkg999 but you are right, the difference certainly isn't night and day. I did notice a little more clarity in the voices. Well thank you all for the help

dkg999

You'll also notice, or should notice, a lot more dynamic range, ie a lot more slam when the explosions hit in a movie

Sami

You're not noticing much difference in movies or music? There should be a lot of difference in music but that also depends on what your other gear is, most importantly what speakers you have.

Dot40

Well I mainly watch movies. My speakers: Fronts = RTi10s, center = CSI5, surrounds = FXi5, and a psw505 for the sub. Honestly I still think something is wrong. I know I'm hooking up everything correctly. I'll test it some more with other movies. Thanks again for the help.

snow

dkg999 wrote:

You'll also notice, or should notice, a lot more dynamic range, ie a lot more slam when the explosions hit in a movie

Exactly. you should notice more oomph in the bass area especially. The aragon is rated at 200wpc for front L-R-C channels versus 110wpc for the denon. It was a $2500.00 amp new so it shouldndt be a slouch. perhaps try getting out a favorite cd that has a lot of bass in it, try listening to a song that you are familiar with. With the amp hooked up to the denon, then unhook the amp and try it with the denon only see if you can tell a difference in how the bass sounds. And when you turn it up a little the denon should start to break up and distort long before the aragon does. The aragon should give you the little extra you need when the ohms drop down to 2 or so in a heavy bass passage, where as the denon may falter and go into protect or distort. REGARDS SNOW

Ern Dog

Make sure you are using decent interconnects from your preamp to amp in order to get the most out of this new upgrade.

That is interesting that you only noticed a suble difference. I noticed a dramatic difference with my Rti10's when I added a 220wpc amp.