High or Low?

Support
1

I’m using an MSB Premier DAC with a Vitus SL-103 preamplifier. The manual recommends LOW output when using an external preamp and HIGH when driving a power amplifier directly.

After careful listening, I consistently prefer HIGH because it sounds more dynamic, more holographic and more detailed.

Is there any technical disadvantage to using HIGH into an external preamp?

Specifically:

  • Does HIGH have higher distortion?
  • Different S/N ratio?
  • Lower headroom?
  • Higher output impedance?
  • Any increased risk of clipping the input stage of a high-quality preamp?

Or is LOW simply a conservative recommendation for compatibility with a wide range of preamplifiers?

2

Low is for wider compatibility. If high sounds better, please stay with high! Some pre-amps will clip if the input is set to high.

1 Like
3

Thank you Jonathan