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In the Forum: Melquiades Amplifier
In the Thread: Planning my DSET
Post Subject: Read sun is rising...Posted by Romy the Cat on: 8/22/2019
There are some commercial preamps that have sub 10R output: Karana, Quicksilver, Rogueaudio and many others. Some of them will ship the units to you to try. It might be good to experiment with them. To have you local guy who will work with you is a good direction.  I have no idea how the Muses chip sound, of how the PS Audio’s Stellar Gain Cells sound. It all needs to be tested. In most of the cases the claims the preamps makes make are not accurate, not because they are bad people who spread bad claims be because in most of the cases they do not know what results are expected buy you. It however might be the case where your expectations do not exceed the level of the expectations under which the preamp was designed/tested by maker. So, it is always the experimentations unless you know the preamp provider personally and know what level of reference point he supports.
With most of the none-discreet SS devises nowadays the gains is not problem. They use some kind of integrated circuits that run a lot of feedback. Levering the feedback, changing one resistor will yield more gain. I would like to sound as some kind of purist and to make the claims that integrated circuits are crap and global feedback is crap. The reality might not support it and I feel that everything is on a table. My tuner and my DAC have a few dollar worth op-amps in output stage and you do not see me complaining. 
 
I still do not know what is your problem with Placette is, it is a mystery to me. I know that Placette nowadays has a new version, very different output devises then it use to be and it has gain. I have both and new (believe me or not) in the same box. I feel that there is a difference in sound between the old and new. The new one is very transparent in term of Sounds but in my view it has some aria of concerns as well. 
 
You might go an alternative route. Why you are in progress to fine a good preamps you can get bad one that meet your specification and use if for a while. That what I would do. Find any cheap commercial preamp with a few Ohms output impedance.  Most likely it will be some mass market Japanese things from 80-90s, like Denon PRA-1200 or the similar. The eBay should be your best friend and the key is to get one under $100. As you get the unit you will bypass all bad input switches, tone controls, filters and the rest crap they build in and you only the preamp section. It will not sound good (most likely) but it will let you play you playback and to see what else is out there.

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