I have been playing around with passive attenuators for the last couple of weeks, it has been hellish trying to get it to function properly, I have tried several configurations and values, from the single pot, to a resistor loaded pot, to a series resistor and a pot, Then chnanging the values of the resistor and the pot.
All this because I made a simple test pot box and it sounded amazing. My amps have very low sensitivity, that is supposed to help. The passive is intalled inside the amps (monos) and 3 inches away from the input tube. One IC only.
I have noticed that changing the values changes the sound of the passive completely. If I go to the lowest resistor value for the pot I get more dynamics, If the series resistor is too high it cannot solve complicated passages of the music, if it is too low the extension of the high freq. will go down (no highs), so it has been a fine tuning effort but clearly rewarded.
The main diferences I noticed between the passive and the active are:
Passive:
-Darker backround...incredible backround! no noise.
-More extension on both sides (when porperly intalled)
-The music is more relaxed but dinamic non the less.
-The tone of the instruments seem more natural.
Active:
-Dynamics man, the impact of the drums and cimbals and horns is so big it puts you there.
-The tone of the instruments seem very real. (dinamics help here)
-I would not have noticed but yes there is a certain distortion not heard on the passive.
To round it up I would say the active preamp is more "Be There" distortions and all, while the passive is hypnotical...
Beware; I used to have a top of the line DAC with volume control and in no way would it compare to the passive I have now, I cannot compare side by side since I sold it about a year ago, but it seems pretty obviuos to me now.
I cannot tell you I prefer one over the other...
All this because I made a simple test pot box and it sounded amazing. My amps have very low sensitivity, that is supposed to help. The passive is intalled inside the amps (monos) and 3 inches away from the input tube. One IC only.
I have noticed that changing the values changes the sound of the passive completely. If I go to the lowest resistor value for the pot I get more dynamics, If the series resistor is too high it cannot solve complicated passages of the music, if it is too low the extension of the high freq. will go down (no highs), so it has been a fine tuning effort but clearly rewarded.
The main diferences I noticed between the passive and the active are:
Passive:
-Darker backround...incredible backround! no noise.
-More extension on both sides (when porperly intalled)
-The music is more relaxed but dinamic non the less.
-The tone of the instruments seem more natural.
Active:
-Dynamics man, the impact of the drums and cimbals and horns is so big it puts you there.
-The tone of the instruments seem very real. (dinamics help here)
-I would not have noticed but yes there is a certain distortion not heard on the passive.
To round it up I would say the active preamp is more "Be There" distortions and all, while the passive is hypnotical...
Beware; I used to have a top of the line DAC with volume control and in no way would it compare to the passive I have now, I cannot compare side by side since I sold it about a year ago, but it seems pretty obviuos to me now.
I cannot tell you I prefer one over the other...