Anyone use separate pre and power amps ?

[far0n]

You can get tiny rack mount power amps fairly cheaply these days, just wondered if anyone used a little preamp straight into a power amp. All opinions, advice and abuse welcome !

[BassBod]

My pre/pwr set up is very old-fashioned, Alembic F2B/SWR Stereo 800. Sounds great but is 4U rack and the fan in the SWR is noisy. I sometimes use my Euphonic Audio 500 head as a power amp, but I find the gain staging a bit more difficult (too hot for front inputs...a bit weak for effects return/pwr amp). I fancy the SWR sounds better, but the heat and fan noise can be a problem for any smaller gigs.

[Bassman]

I use aguilar tone hammer pre & crown xls 402. That work fine, dont cost so much and the agui can be bring everywhere.

[Wil]

Sansamp RBI and a Crown XS700. When I bought it the Crown was set up with a bridging cable to run at 1900 watts. I found this didnt give any more real volume than when it's running 700 watts per side and the heat caused it to cut out a lot when pushed so I put it back in stereo mode with a regular cable. So far it's been a good bit of kit, I wouldnt mind something a touch lighter though.

Saying that, I once paired the Sansamp with Mr Foxen's old Matamp Quasar 1000 watt power amp to do some troubleshooting and that sounded incredible - so much clean headroom. If I ever see one of those for sale I'll be sorely tempted.

[Mr. Foxen]

Yeah, that Quasar with a Trace V-type, and a Peavey Raxx preamp, either or both, depending on how I'm feeling/how big the room is/how many cabs I can lay hands on. Hefty kit though.

[velvetkevorkian]

Yep- Boss VF-1 running into a tiny BK Electronics class D power amp. Will be super portable once I get a cab I can actually carry.

[Dood]

Most of the preamps mentioned above are 'rack units' though. So I wouldn't necessarily call them little. The VF-1 is a lovely little half rack, so I think that's a good example. How about the EBS MicroBass II and the Sansamp ParaDriver. Both are pedal sized preamps and are both brilliant! - Infact I like the fact that they are 'dual purpose' - sling them in your pedal board - or use as a full preamp!

[algmusic]

[quote name='dood' post='959487' date='Sep 17 2010, 02:23 PM']Most of the preamps mentioned above are 'rack units' though. So I wouldn't necessarily call them little. The VF-1 is a lovely little half rack, so I think that's a good example. How about the EBS MicroBass II and the Sansamp ParaDriver. Both are pedal sized preamps and are both brilliant! - Infact I like the fact that they are 'dual purpose' - sling them in your pedal board - or use as a full preamp![/quote]

+1

[far0n]

[quote name='velvetkevorkian' post='959013' date='Sep 17 2010, 12:24 AM']Yep- Boss VF-1 running into a tiny BK Electronics class D power amp. Will be super portable once I get a cab I can actually carry.[/quote]

See now, I quite like the idea of those teeny Class D racked power amps. What wattage is yours ? Got any info ?

[markstuk]

Not so Tiny Ashdown RPM-1/APM-1000 rig - I like the ability to Bi-amp more than anything else about this setup.. I have a spare Amcron GeoDyne II that I can use as a backup, and a no-name active crossover/graphic EQ that in extremis can function as a preamp..

Now wait for the posts about transformers and slew rates in power amplifiers being the most important thing rather than pure RMS power.. :-)
(ducks and hides)..

[velvetkevorkian]

[quote name='far0n' post='959668' date='Sep 17 2010, 05:02 PM']See now, I quite like the idea of those teeny Class D racked power amps. What wattage is yours ? Got any info ?[/quote]
Sure, it is [url="http://www.bkelec.com/HiFi/ClassD/ClassD.htm"]this one[/url] which I bought from our own Dood a few years ago. It really is tiny, and goes up to 600W at 2 ohms. I'm sure I read that they don't make them any more, so not sure why they're still on the site...? Anyway, I really like it; the only issue is it's really designed to be stuck into a speaker so it's not easily rackable. Not an issue for me. Here's a pic for scale:
[url="http://s39.photobucket.com/albums/e157/velvetkevorkian/?action=view&current=minirig1.jpg"][/url]
Anyway, it's served as backline for death metal gigs and been fine for me.