Preamplifier Buying Guide
Our preamplifiers are the heart of your system!
Audio by Van Alstine offers you great preamplifiers at rational
prices for true state-of-the-art musicality. We get the best out
of hybrid chips, vacuum tubes, MOSFETs, and discrete semiconductors
to provide the liquid and transparent performance you want.
AVA preamplifiers have active line stages with low output impedances
and high drive current to properly charge and discharge the distributed
capacitance of interconnect cables and amplifier input circuits.
A passive line stage (an expensive empty box with a volume pot)
simply will not do the job because it has high output impedance
and it interacts with your interconnect cables and your amplifier.
It cannot filter out-of-band garbage. You need a true high fidelity
preamplifier to make your system work best. All AVA equipment is
easy to drive and helps to get the best performance out of your
existing system.
Compact disc and digital source musicality is enhanced because
our preamplifiers isolate your amplifier and speakers from harsh
digital switching sidebands that many CD players inadequately filter.
Not all audiophiles collect every source format, so phono and tape
buffer circuits are optional to keep the base cost as low as possible.
If you do collect vinyl, our RIAA phono circuits have precise equalization
and effortless phono dynamics to make you want to play all your
records again. You won’t believe what amazing true-to-life
sound you can pull off your records until you try them with AVA
electronics.
Our design goal is to have our equipment sonically disappear, leaving
only the music. Tube, hybrid or solid-state—our aim is the
same. But as we shoot at perfection, each circuit ends up having
a slightly different characteristic sound because of the underlying
technology. This chart can help you choose among the nuances and
determine which preamp is the best match for your system and listening
preferences.
Audio by Van Alstine offers four series of preamplifiers:
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