Do I need a preamp?

[ECARCTICFIRE]

HI

I have decided that I'm going to buy a schitt modi 2 dac for my sound system. I will be hooking it up to a onyko
tx-sv515pro which is analog. I will be using Boston speakers. my audio source will be digital however. do I need a preamp?

Thanks
EC ARCTIC FIRE

 

[Vosgy]

I can't seem to find any real information about the device, Onkyo seems to have removed information about it from their own site. It doesn't appear to be a power AMP, so you shouldn't need a pre AMP for it to work.

 

[ECARCTICFIRE]

I can't seem to find any real information about the device, Onkyo seems to have removed information about it from their own site. It doesn't appear to be a power AMP, so you shouldn't need a pre AMP for it to work.

Well its from around 1990. What exactly is the difference between a power amp and a amp.

Thanks
EC ARCTIC FIRE

 

[Vosgy]

A pre AMP get the signal ready to be transferred to the speakers and a power AMP just ups the Wattage to add volume. They are used as a pair as both processes need to be done in order to get both a correct sound and volume as the initial signal is very weak. A ordinary AMP has both the signal preparation and amplification hardware in it.
There are some strange amplification set ups out their, the CD player I have has a pre AMP in it, and a very good one, but as the regular AMP I have also contains its own pre AMP I have to disable the pre AMP on the CD player as going though the process twice makes it sound awful.

 

[americanaudiophile]

You do not need a separate preamp. There is one built into your Onkyo receiver. Just connect the DAC into any input other than phono. A receiver is a radio-tuner + preamp (and surround processor in the case of an AV receiver + power amplifier (2 or more channels depending).

 

[stephquar]

Just want to say thank you to Americanaudiophile. You solved our problem.