Moreplay success

[hryc111]

Just finished the Moreplay kit.   Sounds fantastic.  I am feeding it into the home theater bypass on my Musical Fidelity M6si integrated.  I'm now getting the sound through KEF LS50 metas that I'd always hoped for, but never quite achieved.  Violins, voices are sweeter, more involving.  Everything thing seems more open.  Love.

I just wanted to say what a joy it is to build these kits.  I also love my Crack.  Brilliant designs, but brilliant kit-design as well. The manuals are a model of clarity and completeness.  Now to resist the upgrade bug....

Thank you!

[RapaNui]

So I Am Assuming That Prior Of Using The Moreplay, You Were Using The M6 As An Integrated?

Moreplay As A Pre + Power amp Section Of MF seem to be More Enjoyable.
Do You  Find The Gain  Adequate Or Is  a bit High?

I Have The Meta's Also But Running Them With Tube Power Amp And Was Thinking Of Maybe Trying It
I Just Fear That 10db of Gain Might A little High

Thx

[Paul Birkeland]

I Just Fear That 10db of Gain Might A little High

There are very, very few active linestage preamps with less than 20dB of gain.

[RapaNui]

Hi Paul, Yes That Is A Fact
I Have A Passive Now And Kind Of Got Used The " Rotation" Range That I Have
10db Of Gain Is in The Low Side For A Preamp And That Is Why I Am Interested In This Unit
I Just Don't Want To Be It Too Loud At let Say 10 o'clock

On A Different Topic Can The Balance Control Be " bypassed" Or Extra Parts Are Needed ?

Thx

[hryc111]

@RapaNui:  I'm not sure what the symptoms of too much gain would be, but I can report that the volume control in my setup behaves relatively similarly to the volume control on the integrated.  I haven't measured this precisely, but subjectively I achieve the same volume level with Moreplay at 25% as I do with the internal integrated pre-amp at maybe 35% (?) rotation.   I certainly feel as if I have plenty of nuanced control. 

I should also admit that I'm making the assumption that the Home Theater bypass bypasses the M6si pre-amp section completely, although I'm not positive of that.  It certainly bypasses the volume control. In my office, I have an old NAD integrated amp with a pre-out and main (power-amp)-in and removable jumper between them. I'm going to try Moreplay with that amp too.

I should also admit that these are my first forays into tube amplification, so I don't even know whether connecting tube pre-amps to solid state integrated amps is something many people do.  Seems to be working really well for me. 

[Mucker]

Congrats on the new build!

A tube device like the Moreplay is the perfect way to inject tube flavor into a SS system. In my case, I currently have a SMSL DAC (0.00009 % THD+N) feeding a Moreplay which feeds an Emotiva XPA-2 Gen 2 SS power amp. The Moreplay provides excellent warmth and tube flavor to the audio and provides a volume control which the power amp lacks.

I have aligned the volume knob indicator so zero faces perpendicular toward the front of the amp. I have never had the volume indicator past 90 degrees from zero (way too loud).

I usually set the Moreplay volume somewhee in that range and then use the digital volume control on the DAC (uaually -50dB to 0 dB). It works wonderfully and nothing is lacking.

I could run the DAC straight into the amp by XLR and use the digital volume control, but prefer the RCA's and the Moreplay by far (it's dead quiet).

[RapaNui]

OK Thx hryc111 And Mucker. I Appreciate Your Feedbacks

[Paul Birkeland]

If you bypass the balance control, that will increase the gain of the preamp, so you might think twice about doing that.

The general rule of thumb is that a power amp that's not very sensitive will need 2.5V of signal for full power and some source components out there have pretty weak outputs around 250mV, so 20dB of gain will get your source voltage bumped up enough to get full power out of your amplifier.