The invention discloses a preparation method of a lithium ion battery positive electrode composite material and a precursor thereof, and in particular relates to a novel method for preparing a high-purity low-cost binary or ternary precursor and preparing a high-performance lithium ion battery binary or ternary positive electrode composite material by utilizing the precursor, belonging to the technical field of new energy materials and the preparation thereof. The method comprises the following specific steps: (1) putting salt-type solid raw materials of two or three of nickel, cobalt and manganese with crystal water into a reactor, and heating the materials to the molten state; (2) introducing ammonia under the protection of inert gas, supplementing a small amount of water or no water according to the solubility of salts at different temperatures, stirring and reacting; (3) evaporating ammonium salt after full reaction, taking the solid out, and drying so as to get the amorphous binary or ternary positive electrode composite material precursor; and (4) mixing the precursor with lithium carbonate according to a certain ratio, and further preparing the lithium ion battery positive electrode composite material through a two-section sintering method. The precursor synthetic method is simple, sodium hydroxide is avoided from being used, separation and purification are not required, and the high-purity positive electrode composite material precursor which has no impurities basically can be obtained; furthermore, no industrial waste water is discharged, and the by-product ammonium salt can further generate economic benefit; and the positive electrode composite material prepared by the precursor has excellent performances, and is convenient for industrialization.