I have both a Creek OBH-12 and a Placette RVC. Creek was my pre-amp for over a year, so I was fairly familiar with it. The Placette is substantially more transparent than the Creek. It was a five minute audition to decide and keep the Placette. Probably the best bang for buck I've gotten out of my system.
Placette vs. Creek remote volume controllers?
I'm going the "minimalist" route with one of my two systems. Presently a Creek OBH-10 volume controller serves as my preamp into a Pass Aleph 30. This $250 unit seems to get the job done nicely but I do have to wonder if the 4 times as expensive Placette unit would be a sonic upgrade for me. One problem I have with the Creek is gain matching with the Aleph 30--there are some occasions when I could use a few more dB than the Creek will get me at its max setting. Please let me have your views. Thanks!