Talk:Preamplifier

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

	This article is within the scope of the Professional sound production WikiProject, a collaborative effort to improve Wikipedia's coverage of the technology, equipment, companies and professions related to professional sound production. If you would like to participate, you can visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks.
Start	This article has been rated as Start-Class on the assessment scale.

a preamplifier can convert 12volts to how much volts
-- The discussion page is not a forum on the topic... it is for discussing the article. On a separate note, does the external link seem very informative? It seems like a plug to me. Mybe it should be removed.

deleted: "To reduce noise the metal chassis are interconnected, and shielded cables are so connected at the source end only. The use of battery power is good both for audio preamps and amplifiers." The claim about shielding is totally bogus. No cable is sold like that. Yeah, some people do it, mostly people with know background in electrical engineering. Try reading tech notes on rane.com for a more informed perspective. I assume the suggestion to use batteries is motivated by similar rumors about grounding. 69.241.241.107 01:41, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

In pro use, with balanced connections, cable shield connected at only one end is fairly common, even sometimes in semi-mass-production cables. You can't feed a mic phantom power over a cable like that, which is why most have shield connected. It isn't necessarily gonna give you the best signal for interconnection of various fixed devices, though, since ground loops are very much real things. In non-pro audiophile-grade use, you often see cables with 2 conductors + shield (just like in a balanced cable), where the unbalanced signal and the return travel over the 2 conductors and the shield is *just* a shield, rather than the return, and in that case it's connected at only one end. Such a cable will still measure continuity between the centers and the outsides respectively of the rca plugs. i'm not sure if there's a measurable difference to ground loop performance. If there were I suspect more pro cables would be made as 3 conductor plus shield.194.109.254.26 01:33, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

"The preamplifier provides voltage gain (about: 10millivolts to 1volt)" -- since when is gain measured in V? I suspect the article is trying to say (about standard hifi preamps) "provides voltage gain/reduction (output level: between 10 mV and 1 V)", but it's slightly unclear to me.194.109.254.26 01:33, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Merge Proposal

I don't believe there is enough difference between a Microphone preamp and any other to warrant the former having a separate article. I'd suggest this information by edited and merged into the Preamplifier article as it does contain some useful (although unreferenced) information. Nelbs (talk) 23:49, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

I hear you, but I'm the kind of idiot that was looking to understand what a mic preamp was, tried to go to the article directly, it failed for some reason, then tried Preamp, read the article, had NO CLUE what the hell it was talking about, and thanked my lucky stars when I saw there was in fact an article called "Microphone preamp" which explained it a lot better. In other words, there seems to be a difference between these two terms - however subtle - and we should probably rely on an expert or somebody that really understands the subject matter to make this decision.

I won't lie to you, I'm on the "inclussionist" side of editors on wikipedia, which means I'm more inclined to say let's have 2 articles, but this is one I actually don't care about - I used to, before the scourge of the evil admins ... so go ahead, merge if you want, or don't. I will have to trust you. All I'm saying is make sure you're qualified to assess the subject matter to make the call, because if one day an expert comes along and says "hey, there should probably be two articles", he'll have a tough time fighting the deletionist admins because a decision was made NOW to merge them. *Steps off soapbox* Rfwoolf (talk) 14:51, 25 March 2008 (UTC)

Disapprove of merge proposal. I see sufficient differences to have separate articles. Mic preamps are designed with different goals in mind than hi-fi preamps or phono preamps, and they have different target markets. This article should stay where it is but be rearranged to point the way for the reader to find out which kind of preamp they were looking for. It should have brief descriptions of Microphone preamp, Phono preamp, Hi-fi preamp and High-impedance preamp (guitars and pickups), with notices under each heading saying click for the main page of this topic. The brief descriptions here should function as an overview so that a single page will tell you, for example, which preamps have balanced inputs or outputs, which have low-impedance inputs or outputs, which have tone control circuitry or intentional coloration, which have RF protection, which have professional line level vs. consumer line level outputs and which have no gain at all. Binksternet (talk) 22:44, 25 March 2008 (UTC)