Who is using passive preamps and why?


Seldom has there been any discussions on passive preamps in the forums and although my experience with them has been limited I have found them so far to be very enjoyable and refreshingly different. They seem to fall into their own category, somewhere between solid state and tube. Finding a preamp that is satisfing has been difficult. Some active solid state preamps can be very good but they seem to inject grain to some degree in the upper registers and some tube preamps are not too far behind. So far I think they should at least be matched up with an amp that has sufficient gain which is often overlooked. Which passives are you using and with what amp? Why do you like them?
phd

Showing 5 responses by ngjockey

Probably what made a passive TVC successful in my system is that the CDP has less than 100 Zout (impedance) and doubles to 4.2V with XLR cables. Enough bass to rattle the neighbor's windows and party level SPL's (my normal listening volume) at half way.
You all are making this appear much too complicated. I've plugged my TVC into a few friends systems and always had impressive and consistent results. I've changed amps and sources. I currently have a far from ideal load with long IC's, a 10K Zin hi-pass and parallel low-pass/bass amp. A mismatch seems to be the exception I haven't run across and I've seen some unexpected active component or amp/speaker mismatches.

I have played with a couple DIY attenuators but not as a system volume control. One was for a biamp system to control gain and the other replaced a pot in an active preamp. Probably dissuaded by the negative reviews. The TVC was a fairly cheap experiment that I didn't expect to work and, if I had believed some of the "experts", shouldn't work. There's a story but I would rather not mention names. It was a DIY project and it even worked well when I had it wired wrong. That's another story, not for A'gon.

Many of the RVC/attenuators have had a fairly low 10K Zin but, recently, there are more options for higher impedance up to 100K.
Oh, kumbaya.

C'mon... Actives are better than passives. Tubes rule, transistors drool...

This passive argument has become far too passive. Where's the entertainment?
Just to confuse things...

http://diyaudio.co.kr/wwwboard1/data/board1/compare.pdf

Is it safe to assume that the Goldpoint is shunt-type?
For comparison, the S&B 102 has a Zin 0f 10.4k and Zout of 1.4k @ 1kHz at it's worst case of zero attenuation. Zin halves for within each of the next few -3dB steps and Zout doubles. My setup never approaches the end of the dial.

http://www.stevens-billington.co.uk/page102.htm