What is the difference between preamp and power amp

Everything is more or less clear with speaker equipment. But the difference between amp and preamp is a secret for many people. This article is aimed to correct this. A power amplifier is a device that improves the signal coming from a preamplifier and transmits it to speaker systems.

Its main task is to bring a sound wave to a level that will allow the connected speakers to reproduce it with sufficient volume. Power amplifiers usually do not have settings including volume control. All adjustments are made at a preamplifier. The most important factor to remember is that a preamp is used to boost weaker signals. If you do not use anything that generates a low signal strength, then a preamp is unnecessary.

A preamp is specifically designed to increase the strength of weak audio signals. Once they have been processed and are strong enough, they pass through to the amplifier. A signal chain is the chain of cables and components that an audio signal will travel through before being converted into sound by a speaker.

Any musician or budding audiophile must understand the order in which their setup should be. Messing this up and inputting the wrong components into each other can have disastrous consequences, from receiving no signal in your speakers to causing internal damage to the components.

A preamp, as the name suggests, sits before the main amp in this chain. They are only used if the original signal generated is too weak to be picked up by the main amp, so must be placed before it to do so.

For example, an electric guitarist would first plug their instrument into a preamp. The preamp would be connected to the main amp. The main amp would provide a powerful enough signal to use with a passive speaker system.

This, however, is not the case as the preamp is responsible for generating the core sound. This sound can be shaped and manipulated based on the model itself — some will sound vastly different from others. While this is the case for most preamps, it only really makes a big difference to those using electrical instruments through theirs. Many preamps also generate distortion.

This can often sound very compressed, depending on the type of amp you have further down the signal chain. This distortion caused by preamps tends to sound fizzy and saturated, making them sensitive to volume levels. For most listening and playing scenarios, a simple preamp will more than suffice. However, there are other options available in certain situations that will allow those weaker signals to make it to your speakers. Guitarists often opt for preamp pedals in their setups rather than traditional preamps.

They help portability issues for musicians on the road and solve reliability problems that plague some of the older models. These older models often house tubes constructed from glass that become brittle and break after years of use. The solid-state circuitry that goes into preamp pedals solves these problems and creates a great alternative for musicians. They include all the features and functionality of traditional preamps without the associated negatives, even producing effects like overdrive and distortion.

Many audio interfaces and devices will come with integrated preamps. This is great if you have a smaller setup and want to get going, as it saves time and money on a bigger setup. However, for the more expensive audio interfaces, a separate preamp is always advised. They tend to be much better quality and will allow you to tweak the sound your speakers generate.

External preamps also allow you to generate more gain. This is because an integrated one usually generates 60db of gain. However, with an external preamp, you can have up to around 70db. A regular amp, or power amp, is placed later in the signal chain and amplifies the weaker signal generated via the preamp into a signal strong enough to be played and heard through passive speaker systems.

Power amps are essential for any system that includes passive speakers. As these speakers are not powered, the signal they receive must be amplified.

Basically, since the preamp boosts a weak signal to line level, we want to place it near the start of the chain so that it can receive that weak signal. Any number of devices can come after the preamp. Most commonly, you might plug it into a mixer, an interface, a receiver or a power amp. This causes distortion and just sounds bad, but is a very common mistake with preamp to interface connection.

So make sure you plug the preamp into the line input of the interface and not the mic input. This is the same as for the interface: the preamp plugs into one of the line inputs sometimes labeled aux in.

If you are plugging in a turntable, it goes into the phono in plug, which leads to a phono preamp in the receiver. The record player then plugs into the input on the phono preamp and the output from that goes into one of the line inputs on the receiver. This is quite simple. Plug the cable into one of the outputs on the preamplifier and into the corresponding input on the amplifier usually marked with letters. This is a very common question, so I decided to address it here.

On a receiver, these outputs are meant to be connected to an outboard amplifier. If you want something more powerful than the amp built into the receiver or if you just want to take some of the load off the receiver, you can connect to a separate amplifier to power the speakers. The pre-outs are also used to connect to a powered subwoofer and are often labeled as such.

Here is a video that might help explain things. I have a Marantz b amp circa I want to buy a turntable and speakers. If I buy a turntable with a preamp can I still use my Marantz? Are new speakers able to be hooked up to my amp via speaker wire that I have?

What amp do I need.?