There is no spoon (or preamp)

I woke up yesterday morning to the realization that I could try wiring my fresh Bifrost 2 balanced out straight into my JBL LSR310 Sub which crossovers it into my MkII monitors. Previously wiring directly unbalanced was very thin and in my opinion literally does not work even adjusting the sensitivity as directed.

I have been using the Asgard 3 as a preamp and balancing and boosting it with a Rolls Promatch. It sounded pretty good, I thought. I was debating getting a Freya+ wondering how much it could or would improve. I never could get any advice. I was unsure if it was such a stupid question people ignored it or if it was just an unknown entity.

I wired her up and gave a quick listen and made on offer on the Khozmo Passive PreAmp on the Exchange here for a great price. I had some paypal billing address drama that I could not quickly resolve since my phone died Friday and the new had not arrived yet.

So after a while I fire the system back up and started listening. It sounded Bloody Amazing! Six Veils flew off and she was very clean indeed underneath. I have read tales from the Goldpoint fans here on the forum but my goodness this was next level fidelity. Super blackground and the surprising thing to me was the stereo separation seemed to be much more separate. Like monoblocks based in separate dimensions but somehow creating these harmonies. I am still super taken by the (for me) debilitating high fidelity. It also seemed to create a sense of ease without the amplification. I am setup nearfield but aimed at the kitchen in a long rectangular room so adjusting/matching the three segmented volume controls if not too difficult and frankly I don't want to break the sound.

Maybe there really is no spoon/preamp or there shouldn't be. I know some will say that passive is the same as nothing but in my opinion things that are the same do not get called the same because they are the same.

 

My experience with that, using preamp or no preamp it’s system dependent. I could not understand how you are controlling volume nevertheless.
There are some thread here and there explaining about sins of omission, etc.
My system was more fun with freya tubes. Without them, the system was more accurate, but flat.
Cheers

 

I am matching the volume level on the sub and each monitor. Since they are all 3 Series JBL in nearfield it is seamless. Laptop running Audirvana > WYRD > Bifrost 2 >LSR310s > 305P MKII. The levels on the sub and monitors is about half (12 O Clock) which is where I kept them before. Small volume adjustments at the monitor make a big difference now.

 

That's my take on it also after some careful testing. I can go DAC --> power amp and control volume on DAC, and it is more accurate but I am missing the tube bloom from the tube preamp and that's a deal breaker. I gave up on the idea to replace tubes with a passive preamp because of it.

 

Are you both SE or Balanced?

 

Balanced for me

 

I am just lucky, I guess. It sounds like an dance-able autopsy on the music here. My room is super live though.

 

It has been a month since I went direct out of the Bifrost 2 and I am still hypnotized by the clarity and separation gained by my choice. I unsuccessfully researched the input impedance for the JBL 310S to provide a useful spec for synergistic matching. I think it may not be relevant since it is changed to digital and back in the sub and satellites.

It has taught me that I prefer a neutral to warm, resolving sound. All the PI2EAS talk on the forum has me curious if I can get even more clear. The fun thing about the Bifrost 2 is I can A/B by remote from Audirvana USB from the PC and to a PI WIFI to SPDIF still without a preamp. It's a great time to be alive.

 

squish, you should still look at getting a preamp. For your monitors, I'd get the nano patch which is fairly inexpensive. It's a pain in the ass to constantly adjust volume on the back of the monitors.