Resitor Passive

I will be trying a TVC (S&B 102 MKI), Music Reference Pot-in-a-Box, and my Joule 150MKII driving high impedance and sensitive amps (CAT JL2, Music Ref. RM9MKII). I once had the Placette passive, but inthat case I clearly preferred the Placette Active (no gain stages, just robust buffering for an incredible 10 ohm output).

I don't know. The Pot-in-a-Box is Noble - same one used in the ARC SP6 back in the old days. Extremely expensive if manufactured to those standards to day, but I have no idea if, and to what extent, this makes a noticeable difference; of course, I have 50 year old ears.

I went back and forth with the resistor-based PiaB and the TVC with SB102s and for my ears, in my system I preferred the resistor based volume control - which I was not expecting since the consensus seems to be with the TVCs. While the consensus is in favor of TVC, Roger Modjeski who makes my amp (RM9SE)is clearly in favor of keeping transformers out of the volume control thinking they cause more problems than they solve. I suspect that in the right combination, simple, high-quality attenuators provide a purer connection to the source.

I used the PiaB with the RM10 as well and it worked very, very well, but I didn't have the K&K at the time. You should call Roger to hear his side of the attenuator versus TVC approach, the fella at Goldpoint said pretty much the same thing and it seems to make theoretical sense, and it sure worked in my system. Interesting, Roger also makes an RM4 or 5 preamp that has a built in phone stage and operates as pure passive for a linestage, same potentiometer as the one in the PiaB (a 1960s Noble that Roger said would be too expensive to make today). That being said, I think there is some consensus that John Chapman does great work and his TAP is among the very best passives available -- On the other hand, if your thinking about the RM10 you might want to investigate Roger's preamp.