Is preamp remote volume a deal breaker for you?


I've been looking for a quality active tube preamp with remote volume control. Most high quality tube preamps that are reasonably priced (ie, under $4000) do not come with remote volume. Those that do use the cheap motorized Alps pot (I've had bad experience with Alps), probably because it's cheap and widely available. I've seen some very expensive preamps us this pot, unfortunately. The two very high quality preamps I've read about are the SAS Labs 11A, Don Allens preamp, and Atma-sphere M3, but the designers refuses to implement remote because they believe the sound will suffer. Atma-sphere uses a huge hand assembled remote volume only for there expensive MP1. A preamp without remote is a deal breaker for me. How about you?
dracule1

Showing 2 responses by rockadanny

Nope. Best audio quality was my goal when shopping. If that included a remote, then great. If not, then I didn't care. Ended up with one which does not have a remote control and I've adjusted to it just fine. Have had it for years. I spin CDs, one at a time, so I need to get up to swap in a new CD anyway. And quickly was able to judge how loud standing at system was proper volume at seat. Usually get it right so no problem.
No pre remote so I use CDP remote PAUSE in place of remote pre mute button. I don't want the music to proceed without hearing it anyway. So PAUSE works better for me than a mute button.