Why an active preamp with Rock-N-Roll ?

Steakster, I tried a wide variety of 6dj8, 6922, and 7308's in my Eclipse; Siemens, Teles, Amperex, Mullard, all the usual "suspects". Not so much because any one of them sounded bad, just found it fun to do and listen for the difference. Believe it or not, the best OVERALL sound I realized was using La RadioTechnique 7308's. A bit hard to track down, but worth an audition if you enjoy tube rolling. May sound different in your system, though.

Tweakster, the Bent is solid state in the sense that it does not have tubes, I guess. It is a transformer-based passive with neither tranisitors nor printed circuits (except for the optional remote control I chose for mine). It is true that you can build a passive rather inexpensively following a Radio Shack visit. BUT, and this is a but bigger than J Lo's, not with the same quality of components found in either the Bent or Placette. I am not sure if that is what Abex was meaning to imply, though it should be clarified. Apologies if this is not the case.

Active or passive ain't the issue. It's how well the components match, i.e. synergy.
My cdp direct to ss amp has all the "snap" you'd want: on certain Radiohead cuts, you can reach out and feel the electronic current---pulsating.
But it also has the fluidity, grace, and subtle power to convey every nuance in Callas's highest notes.

Steakster,do you have the newer version of the Eclipse???

Have you tried any of the ARC or BAT stuff ??

I would beg to differ just a bit with respect to whomever was the Kora rep and what they told you, as it is different than what the person I talked to at Kora in France (Jeff Starr)has stated to me. The August 2002 part is correct in that this is when the Eclipse was upgraded to include Auricaps, Jena Labs silver cryoed wiring, and improvements to the powewr supply. This resulted in a BIG, and I mean big, difference in sonics. I can state such because I had TWO previous versions of the Eclipse before the Sept 2002 one that I recently sold (and would buy again). It is my understand that the MOST current Eclipses utilize very fine silver wiring within, not unlike the 47Lab OTC stuff, or so I am told. The sonic differences are, again, said to be audible, but not as dramatic as the improvements realized after the August 2002 upgrade version.

For what it is worth.