Who makes the best passive volume control?

Marebg, those are one passive approach I have not tried, but
it sure does help to eliminate an IC, for reasons Ralph
alludes to. I would have a bit of an issue with the
ergonomics of the Endlers, but I suspect they sound very,
very good.

That being said, there are several aficionados of passives
that have tried the gauntlet, including Endler, that once
trying the Lightspeed have concluded it is the best sounding
passive of any topology. I do think that Endler-type
Lightspeed would sound the best, but it would be a bit more
complicated to design and that is not the designers way -
though I am sure there would be a market for it - get rid of
the IC, the final frontier:)

Check out Richard Lee audio.

We could do that, but it seems his stuff is just a pot-in-a-
box with a Noble attenuator. If you go that route, I would
look at the Music Reference PiB which uses one of the most
expensive attenuators ever made by Noble, the one used in the
ARC SP6. However, we are trying to identify the best volume
control, so some system context and comparative info would be
useful. I believe that most passives, in the right system,
including Richard Lee, will sound very good compared to most,
not all, active linestages, but if you are looking for the
best, I don't think you can come to any conclusions till you
have heard the Lightspeed Attenuator, for my money, it is the
one to beat - including any resistor, TVC or AVC on the
market.

Thanks for the tip Mitch4t.

I have tried both the Endler's and EVS attenuators favoring the EVS in the end. I still keep them around.

I have always been curious about two other passives that come in balanced versions that I've never tried. One is the Luminous and the other is Reference Line.