Adding Volume control to an older preamp

Thank you all for the input!

Im going to go with moving the preamp near my listening chair and purchasing the longer interconnects. If I don’t like it I will purchase the Saga.

I started moving things has night and realized the my Ethernet cable will no longer reach the streamer. The devil is in the details.

Not a good idea to use a longer interconnect and Ethernet cable just for the convenience of volume adjustment. I’d rather take the opportunity to get some exercise — or consider the following:

1. If you keep the Wiim for streaming: It has a ReplayGain setting that lets you normalize volume across albums or tracks. I recall Qobuz only supports track-level normalization, but it still reduces the need for constant volume adjustments. In the Wiim, ReplayGain is applied as metadata and processed with 32-bit precision before DAC conversion, so there’s no audible harm to fidelity.

2. If you still decide to move the gear closer: Consider an optical-Ethernet setup, which many end users have found effective.

Saga2’s output imp. being 4.7kohm does not mean its output imp. is also 4.7kohm.  I believe all Schiit preamps (not headphone amp/preamp) have a standard 10kohm input imp.

My undestanding of "true" passives is that input and output impedances are generally the same by definition - because there’s literally nothing to transform (ala TVC’s) or buffer between the 2 sides. I think Schiit has made "0 gain" preamp options in the past that still use a buffered output - but the Saga’s passive mode doesn’t appear to do this.

Either way it would probably work fine in op’s case, and he could always switch to active mode in a jam. 

A standard 10K input impedance for the active preamps seems an odd choice; I would expect some sources could have output impedances > 1K? 50K - 100K input is a safer bet. Again though, it probably hardly matterns when most modern digital sources have stout output stages.

A standard 10K input impedance for the active preamps seems an odd choice;

I would agree.  Their HP/Preamp series has 50k ohm input but even the higher-end preamp like Kara/Freya stick with 10k.  Why, don’t know, ask bud dry!

My understanding of "true" passives is that input and output impedances are generally the same by definition

A passive device simply means it has no active gain elements such as transistor, op-amp or tube and operates without an external power supply for amplification. This implies nothing about input and output impedances being equal.  You could look at the "SYS" model, i.e., its input and output impedances are 10k and 5k (max) ohm, respectively.

Lastly, the Saga’s gain (ratio) is 1/2 for SE/Balance in Low-Gain active; and 4/8 in High-Gain active. (Amplification = 20 log(gain) is 0 dB when gain = 1)  It is found the Low-Gain active sounds the best, better than the passive mode with slightly more dynamic/openness without hint of constriction.  In addition, Low-gain tends to have lower THD+N than High-gain, as frequently demonstrated in the measurements.

These cheap remote  volume pots just Rob detail Khozmo now makes thin resistor,relay remotes for around $350  night and day better , the cheap $25 alps pots  Just Rob detail are nothing more then a plastic wiper with a conductive 

spray on it.