The handbook for the 8000A states that the pre and power sections
should be seperated when using a seperate power amp. Is this
necessary? Is it possible to do this myself and if so how?

On 25 Feb 2005 22:56:32 GMT, "Jay" wrote:

The handbook for the 8000A states that the pre and power sections
should be seperated when using a seperate power amp. Is this
necessary? Is it possible to do this myself and if so how?


Hi there.

I was in the same position as yourself a few years ago when I upgraded
from an Audiolab 8000A to a Primare 928 Pre- amp and a pair of Primare
928 Monoblocks.

I got hold of the mono-blocks a few months before I managed to track
down the pre-amp and wanted to temporarily use my 8000A as a pre-amp.
I wasn't sure how to do this either and posted on this Newsgroup for
advice. The advice I was given was that I shouldn't have to separate
the pre and power sections, but simply connect the pre-out from the
8000A to the power amp. I did this and the set-up ran perfectly
happily for a few months until I got my Primare pre-amp.

Of course it may be that if you disconnect the sections internally
there will be marginal improvements due to the fact that the internal
power amp is not drawing any power from the power supply, but I
suspect the differences will be marginal. By the way I seem to
remember that the only way to disconnect the two sections is to
physically cut the connection inside the box which is kind of
permanent.

One final thought. In my opinion (and I know some of people disagree),
the Audiolab is one of the all-time bargain amplifiers and it will
take a very good (and expensive) power amplifier to give you an
improvement (unless you have a particularly difficult set of speakers
to drive.

Hope this helps.

Good luck!