Rockville PPA20 Preamp 11V 1U Rack Mount Professional Pre-Amplifier, Phono Input, XLR Outputs, 3-Band EQ, for Home Audio and Studio Recording

I have a Carvin 1500 watt amp and always wanted to use it as a home stereo (not theater....just for stereo music) amplifier...the Carvin has a 1/4inch ins and XLR inputs which are balanced. I wanted a preamp to have XLR output to use the very nice XLR input on the amp...which makes a huge difference in sound quality and noise cancellation when using XLR (balanced cable) and you can push the amp higher with cleaner sound, I did read some reviews about noise and some non functioning dials on this preamp...but for the price I decided to take a chance and I am glad I did. The sound quality blows away my Integrated amp (100 watts per channel) - and good luck finding a preamp for this price full stop! I did find one preamp with XLR outputs for a mere $4500!! Decided I was going to take my chances with this one! Also as a side note the equalizer function is clean and accurate, AND the loudness button really works well. One last caveat was that I can use the MICROPHONE input to plug in my guitar directly and play along with the music for learning a song or just jamming along....I am assuming you can actually use this as a sing along Karaoke machine to your favorite music is you are vocally talented (I have been banned to even sing in the shower which I think is rather cruel! so no...I dont have a microphone!) - anyhow....if you need a preamp, this is a good one...it has RCA in and out...AND you can plug your own equalizer to it if you want before sending out to the amplifier....I am assuming that would allow you to equalize on both the pre amp AND the equalizer for major sound modification. The only thing I wish the pre amp had would be a lighted face, but I am sure that would send the price up significantly....Hope this was helpful

Awesome preamp! I wanted to use it as a stereo receiver to hook up to my cassette deck and it works really well. I love the eq and all the settings on the front panel, very useful. I also love the fact that it has so many phono inputs in the back, that way you can hook up multiple things at once.

Good quality build. Rockville just got a new customer for anything audio that comes up. EXCELLENT buy . MUTT.

I own 2 of these preamps. My first one was the 3-wire AC corded version with an internal power supply. It did NOT have an external ground lift switch as advertised. In order to eliminate the variable 120 Hz hum, I had to make the following internal AC circuit modifications. I removed the Green wire ground connection, placed a decoupling capacitor across the Hot and Neutral and wired a 2.2 Meg Ohm resister from Neutral to chassis ground. I also added a grounding lug for my TT. This helped a LOT, but did not completely eliminate all the hum. AVOID this one if you can. The latest version has no internal power supply and relies on a 12VDC 1 Amp external wall-wart. THIS IS THE ONE YOU WANT TO BUY! I did NOT have to make any modifications at all. It's very quite and has no scratchy balance POT like the AC corded version. Contrary to what some have said, BOTH units have a fully functional RIAA Moving Magnet Phono input. They are comparable to the Pyle or Behringer MM phono preamps in sound quality, which is good enough for most listeners. I don't see how they can manufacture this product at such a low price? I'm gladly keeping both.

Works Great!!!

I am getting fairly well acquainted with my new Rockville Preamp and thus far I'd have to say it's been a very pleasant introduction. It is helpful to fill in areas where the sound was lacking amidst the loudness of other sounds in different octaves. Over a year later: Well, I've had the preamp now for over a year. I've been thinking of how I'd describe it, and it's critically for this pre amp. Out of the box, the fader made a very large scratching noise when the knob is turned. It still does this. I've got some noise created by this pre amp when nothing's playing. I've got several components in line, but consistently the hissing traces back to it. I will say also that there is there is very little hum, & a hissing is better than a hum. I'd rather neither. I picked up a Denon preamp and a matching amplifier locally, and the sound quality is much better with this. There is no scratching when I make adjustments nor does it hiss when it is at rest

Fact that this preamp ha both XLR and RCA connections was just what I needed for one of my audio recording systems.

Beware of this and any other unit that my be based on it. 1. Overall sound is muffled, even with treble at max. 2. Inputs easily overload and distort. 3. Not a true phono input, just another line level input, no proper boost for phono nor RIAA curve. You will also need a phono preamp. 4. My headphone jack was DOA from the start and never worked.