What Preamplifier? Which one of my top 10 would you go for?

The issue with the Topping remotes is not the remote unit it is the IR receiver in the unit. This is poor design by Topping.

My initial approach was to try a quality remote with learning ability which made no difference. The effective, solution was to remove the highly reflective glass from the Topping which is screen printed on the internal surface and has only a tiny clear spot in front of the IR sensor (this limits the angle from which IR can reach the sensor). I carefully cut a new panel from a DVD case and fitted this in place of the factory part. Problem solved. I can now point the remote in any direction, even bouncing off the walls, perfect. Not particularly elegant but when warranty expires I will remove the screen printing around the sensor area of the original glass panel.

I really have no idea why Topping has not addressed this easy to rectify design flaw. I think a larger clear area in front of the sensor should be the cure although the DVD case is also way less reflective than the original glass screen.

A very long 2mm hex key is the only tool required to do this modification. The original glass window is not glued in place and this procedure is totally reversible.

I would buy the SPL elector IF i had the $€£ simply because it's made in a factory about four hours drive from my house by very tidy germans .😂
Seriously things made IN germany tend to exhibit high build quality ,,,,so ?

Of course MAKUA....

Thanks a lot for this video, very informative. I have a question related to the SPL Elector. Are there any differences between the Elector and the Phonitor X with regards to the quality of their speaker output? I do not want to lose the ability to use headphones in my system (and currently do not have a separate headphone amplifier) and the Elector does not have a headphone output. I know the Elector has more balanced and RCA inputs, but for my needs the two inputs in the Phonitor X (RCA for my Rega Saturn Mk3 and balanced for my Technics SL-1200GR via a Gold Note PH-10) are enough. In addition, the Phonitor X can be optionally equipped with a DAC and some digital inputs. What's the catch? Am I missing something here? Thanks a lot in advance for your feedback!

I would just suggest not to worry too much about remotes. Sure for the prices you expect a decent one to be included. However, just get a universal remote, and the problem is solved. The remote is really just a detail and by far not the most important when buying a preamp. I finished the whole video in 1 go and I didn't fall asleep or get bored. Which means great content and presentation!

Love that turn up volume for specific sound than volume vack down i feel you 😂

Great video! On your review, I just bought a Topping pre90 to see how it does vs my Krell Class A KRC HR preamp.

I have the SPL Elector and absolutely love it! Dead quiet and the connections are great. I also bought the SPL Crossover and love it as well.

Great video! So many preamps. I wish you could have evaluated your UK brethren Max Townshend's(RIP) Allegri Reference Passive Preamp. It isn't cheap but it checks all your boxes. Thanks!

I'm currently hunting for preamp. The Elector caught my attention but I read that it has VERY low gain and needs to be carefully matched. The Artera also looks interesting but haven't heard Quad gear since the grey and orange days when I found it to be rather soft in the bass. At the time I owned mostly Threshold gear so I suppose I was spoiled. A used SL-10 like the one I owned is still selling for about $1500 44 years later, in very average condition I must say. It must have been as good as I remember it.

Hey Harley.
I Decided on a silver DENAFRIPS Hestia12th for XLR balanced signal management this month. The Topping has more of a Clinical reputation. Not my thing.
I would definitely recommend the Hestia12th for the clear expressive, full bodied presentation.
I believe it allows the Ares12th full freedom to display it's wonderful musical strengths.

Hestia also has an aluminium brick remote with Marantz/Mu-Fi CD player compatible functionality!

I'm keeping the Musical Paradise MP701mk2 for DIY tweaking and when I fancy the added tube Magic (-:OFTEN ;-)

My PRE90 sits across from me in its stack and I’ve never had a problem using the remote. It could be better, like the Appletv’s that works in any direction, but it is quite functional. It’s definitely point and shoot but it’s good enough for me. It has boosted the dynamic range and clarity of sound, probably better impedance matching. Keep the batteries fresh!

When he started at 600 Euros I knew I had to look elsewhere for buying advice. 😕

I'd pass on all of your preamp suggestions!

声が小さい Volume / Normalized 100% / DRC (content loudness -7.7dB)

Have you tried a Lejonklou Supekikin Preamp?

What a wonderful video..!!! (as usual). I needed this one so much and the funny thing is that I din`t know, having a list and go thru them was great. I'm pretty sure about Sugden amplification now but this video has given me a lot of to think about. Thank you.

Schitt Freya+

Could you please do a video explaining the audio components we see in this room you're in?

Despite how great all these preamp are, I can only afford a simple USB powered Fostex HP-A3 :)

That MICHI P5 S
is simply in its own stratosphere!
It’s tremendously equipped, very high performance, and simply DROP-DEAD Gorgeous! I cannot wait to get my hands on one!
(an excellent presentation as always, and thank you).🌹

If you are digital only a pre amp is not needed most of the time ,,,, a simple Pass B1 impedance circuit will yield far better results at a tiny fraction the cost - google it

The Mola Mola’s premium remote control at 750 euros is more money than the Topping. A bit comical.

You might like a pre amp from Ayre Acoustics.

I am totally with you about SPL. I started with the Phonitor. It was so detailled and dynamic, but also with extremly silent background. Fantastic value for the money. So, now the Elector (or Director) and Phonos will follow.

Might seem like a silly question but how do you know you have a good power amp and speaker pairing without the preamp?

I loved your reviews, very brave to put Topping ahead of renowned brands, 6000 dollars cheaper than PS Audio, I wouldn't mind the remote control. Congratulations

Been using the Mola Mola because I wanted the famous DAC and Phono Stage. It has a low 44Ohm impedance that runs an Octave tube amp, Bryson solid state amp, Outlaw Audio amp, and old Simaudio Moon amp without any compatibility issues.

Would definitely recommend as a lifelong component. Unless it breaks, I can’t imagine replacing it.

Excellent comparison of preamps. I have the Quad Artera Pre which is a really great preamp, sonically. It's also very quiet with a lot of gain and each of the relay selectable inputs the gain can be altered to match the other inputs. The only downside is the very necessary remote as to change settings on the preamp itself is a pain. The remote's control for volume is also critical as when pressing volume -, it's easy to change inputs. I've had two so far and the latest one is getting a bit flakey. The performance of the preamp can't be faulted imo, even the phono input is excellent.

I wish evwey piece of gear used rf/bt/wifi for remote control...

That preamp of your’s which appears to have no access to standby from the generic remote control:- try lomg pressing the mute button. If a ubiquitous remote control is important to you, buy components which employ Bluetooth remote facilities, not infrared. They will be effective for up to 6 yards and are omnidirectional, regardless of furniture and other obstacles.

I don’t have the luxury of a dedicated listening room. My hi-fi has to fight for its right to be in our family lounge. It is therefore subject to the prying little fingers of grandchildren and pet dogs. To protect it, I house it in a media cabinet with smoked glass lockable doors I had purpose built. A secondary benefit of that is that you don’t hear the ‘click click click’ of the preamp’s volume control.

Thanks for the great vid, i have a Sugden A21 SE, have you tried to connect a preamp to a integrated? Cause then the signal gets pre amplified twice.

And which one of these preamps would work well with the sugden bzw. which one could outperform the build in preamp in the A21 SE?

Great Vid, appreciated. Have you tried a preamp with the Sugden A21 SE? Preamp to a integrated makes sense? Cause the signal will be amplified twice etc. And which of the preamps would be enhance the A21 SE? Thanks a lot and cheers.

Recently implemented the Topping PRE90 between Topping D70s dac and Atoll AM400..what can I say, I´m really surprised by the result. I was already a big fan of the D70s and now found a perfect matching preamp. These are really some hidden gems in the Topping range. It´s also incredible silent, can´t tell if the equipment is on or off with my ear to the tweeter 🤫 The remote is not very responsive but luckely I´m only 3m in front of it..then it works fine.

I chose an Artera, which I'm very happy with. I bought it because it was the most affordable high quality pre' with balanced outputs that I could find. I'm a musician and have a modest laptop-based home recording set up. I bought the small PMC powered monitors to use with it and found I preferred them to my ageing hi-fi speakers. Rather than replace them, I decided to use the PMCs for listening and looked for a pre' that would drive them. Did some digging and came across the Quad. It was on special offer for under £1k, which was a bonus. The smooth and slightly gentle sound of the Quad means it works very nicely with the more forthright presentation from the monitors. At under £3.5k for amplification and speakers, I don't think I could do much better for the money.

Hahaha hahahaha hahaha🤦‍♂️😳😂

What a clear and articulate manner of presentation you have. Definitely jealous.

Thanks Harley.
I have a completely different perspective of preamps. Yes, I want them to be quiet and versatile but I also want them to be musical. I don't want DAC's , I just want preamplification. DAC chips get better everyday, why should I pay for one in a preamp? This is the same thing that's happening in test equipment today, China is beating the pants off the big guys like Keysight with 12 bit scopes for under $1k US. How are they doing it? With the new chips coming out everyday, that's why you have a Topping that sounds better than a PS which has never impressed me BTW, sorry Paul.
My favorite power amps are class D because class D is the cleanest most accurate amp you can buy, and they are relatively inexpensive, ask Bruno Putzeys. Make the power amp the neutral base and build from there.

So if you have a power amp that's as close to dead neutral as possible you can contour the preamp to the sound you like and this is where the tubes come in, I build tube preamps. I did make a Jfet preamp that sounds pretty good for an article in AudioXpress a few years back though. It has been running in my office for about ten years now but tubes are my favorite, I especially like the 6922 but there are so many great tubes to play with, battery tubes are great but they are tough to work with, they can be noisy and hard to control.

When you have your preamp do the sound sculpting then you save the expense, inefficiency and low power of tubes in the power amp so this is where you want to do it because it's much easier to control harmonics in the preamp stage AND much easier to modify and contour your design. We are seeing this combination now with amps like the Heaven Billie mkII and they sound good - very good in fact. The Heaven uses off the shelf ICE 200AS modules which are excellent class D amps, don't let their low cost fool you.

So why should we go through the expense and fiddliness of output transformers and amps that can double as room heaters when we can have much more environmentally friendly amps that sound remarkably good without all the copper, gold, silver or whatever else people want to throw into massively heavy tube power amps? It's a much more elegant solution and we can contour a preamp to any sound we like, it's electronic engineering, we can make test equipment that measures in the picoamps. It's a magnificently precise field, let's employ it, save the planet and have great sound. Our house runs on PV, every watt counts and I love audio - I want both!

Thanks again for your wonderful channel.

Don't forget the Holo Audio Serene. It's a much, much better pre-amp than the Topping in transparency and overall SQ. Likely better than the Makua (just the pre-amp alone). Infact, it is Herb Reichert (Stereophile) one and only reference pre-amp at the moment. I would say the Tambaqui + Serene is heaven.

Harley - strictly speaking as a line stage only excluding their built in DACs, on SQ alone and a cost no object opinion, would you choose the Sugden DAP-800 or Mola Mola Makua when pairing to Sugden power amplification?

For someone like myself who has always only used integrated amplifiers and is now exploring a preamp/power combination, ... no easy task as we all know; this is a very helpful, enjoyable and informative video.
Thank you!

A pre-amplifier is A CONCEPT.

MANUFACTURERS ARE NOT locked in to 1 version of the concept.

You failed to mention why the power amplifiers have early faults.

You didn't mention what happens over time.

A race car needs to be warmed up.
So you understand that concept.

Obviously amplifiers can exist in cold 🥶 or hot environments.

Power amplifiers have warm up stages.

So if you can install a pre-amplifier you can listen to that smaller amplifier while your powerful amplifier is getting warmed up.

Pre-amplifiers stretch tones and reverse amplification.

They produce FLAT WIDE sound just like the room of curved mirrors will give you a distorted image to see.

So a pre-amplifier sound can be improved by installing another tiny amplifier which creates a triangle sound instead of the flat stretched sound of the pre-amplifier.

From zero to 3.5 hours is mostly pre-amplifier sounds and they're not accurate mathematics.
They're reverse mathematics.

From then on the power amplifier starts to take over and it boosts accurate mathematics.

So by 5 hours in, you're listening to mostly power amplifier for the next 10 hours.

Stages have been switched off or reduced in influence.

Again, manufacturers can play around with the concept of a pre-amplifier.

Cable companies can resist the effect of the power amplifier and delay it's time of influence.

Timers and switching devices.

You failed to convert your data language back into the real physical form.

At what point in time did you get to the mathematical accurate sound?
1 hour in?
3 hours of continuous listening?
5 hours?
10 hours?

The main amplifier must do accurate mathematics.

The pre-amplifier can't.

At what time does your pre-amplifier get turned off and then you listen to the accurate sound??

Again, the big accurate amplifier HAS FAULTS.
They realised they could build a REVERSE amplifier thats SMALLER and it will fix the warm up faults of the main power amplifier.

The flat stretched sound of the small amplifier can be fixed with 1 more miniature amplifier that fools our ears with an additional note thats triggered and fast acting which hits in the middle of the stretched sound.

That's 12 hours of amplification SOLVED.
NO FAULTS.

You can listen for 12 hours with NO PERCEIVED FAULTS in the sounds.

So there is no such thing as a preamp with more than 2 channels? You don't say anywhere in your description that you are only looking at 2 channel preamps

Well worth the watch Hartetly thanks
i have an EAR phono stage which has literately changed my life.
The very first note matters.
please talk about phono stages

Hello de France !
Thanks you for this video !
Fred

Nice video, I'm using the Musical Fidelity M8s pre and no! not hard edged at all straddles neutral very well and highly resolving piece.

I love my Topping, have a learning remote control to solve the issue you talked about

The preamp is the most important electronics component in a hifi system.

The Sugden Headmaster makes for a fantastic preamp. I originally bought it just to use as a headphone amp. But, when I bought some Monarchy Audio monoblocks I need a pre. It was going to be temporary but I've no need to change. Remote and three inputs.

Hi, not sure if you will see this as it is an older video, but I will ask anyway. I am using Topping D90 SE and Topping A90 discrete with two Fosi Audio VA3 driving my speakers, I am using the headphone amp pre amp stage as my pre amp. Would the Topping Pre 90 be an improvement for me or would it be essentially the same? My listening preference is detail and separation