variants
or less commonly pre-amp
plural preamps also pre-amps
: preamplifier
On a fundamental level, a preamp makes sound louder without adding noise. Plug a smartphone into a stereo with the volume maxed out and you'll likely get a lot of distortion. A preamp adds that volume without the noise.—
Thorin Klosowski
Thorin KlosowskiThe goal was to assemble a transportable machine that would pick up the specific nuclear signatures associated with materials used in nuclear weapons while screening out materials that might trigger a similar reading, a lab spokesman said. … The systems' parts, though not all available from Radio Shack, came from components on hand at the lab … including a hand-held computer, a pre-amp, an amplifier and a solid-state detector.—Inside Energy/with Federal Lands
Inside Energy/with Federal LandsExamples of preamp in a Sentence
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The microphone preamps provide up to 55dB of gain and the XLR inputs have switchable +48V phantom power for driving studio-quality condenser microphones.
—Mark Sparrow, Forbes.com, 14 May 2025
Quad 303 Amplifier / Quad 33 Preamplifier Photo : Quad
The most famous amp and preamp pair ever made?
—Robert Ross, Robb Report, 26 Mar. 2025
The root of this problem was that the preamp 6SL7GT tubes and the 2051 thyratrons had differing filament currents and thermal time constants.
—IEEE Spectrum, 25 Jan. 2019
Importantly, the switchable built-in phono preamp allows the Classic to plug straight into a line-level input of any system so equipped.
—Robert Ross, Robb Report, 26 Mar. 2025
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Mark Sparrow, Forbes.com, 14 May 2025
Quad 303 Amplifier / Quad 33 Preamplifier Photo : Quad
The most famous amp and preamp pair ever made?
—Robert Ross, Robb Report, 26 Mar. 2025
The root of this problem was that the preamp 6SL7GT tubes and the 2051 thyratrons had differing filament currents and thermal time constants.
—IEEE Spectrum, 25 Jan. 2019
Importantly, the switchable built-in phono preamp allows the Classic to plug straight into a line-level input of any system so equipped.
—Robert Ross, Robb Report, 26 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for preamp
Cite this Entry
“Preamp.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/preamp. Accessed 20 May. 2025.
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