Passive/Active preamps: pros and cons....


New to preamps...what are the advantages/disadvantages of passive or active designs? I will be only connecting one source (CD) to the pre...any thoughts? passive/active switch like the highly reviewed Adcom piece? any others come to mind? Also...in an active design...how much emphasis does the pre have in regard to the main amp signal?
128x128phasecorrect

Showing 1 response by aggielaw

There's a certain group that advocates passive pre's because they do not "color" the sound - it's like the pre is a volume control and that's it. I've read good things here about the McCormack TLC-1 (see http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?aamps&1081433013&openfrom&1&4#1 for a discussion of McCormack's gear). There seems to be a consensus that you cannot use long cables with passive pre's. Those who do not like passive pre's usually claim they lack the dynamics of an active pre. I've read several threads that indecate passive preamps don't even have to be plugged in to work. I've never heard a passive pre, so I can't say much about them.

Active preamps act as a buffer and tend to be more lively and dynamic, but most add or subtract something as all electric components seem to do.

I tried to find resources on the web that directly compared the two, but wasn't successful. Others here will be able to explain the differences in detail though.

Good luck!