Less is more? Premium passive linestage... HELP

I'd recommend taking a look at the Bent Audio website. They have some passive preamp products there that I think are some of the best. They offer a wide variety of inputs and outputs, with both balanced and single-ended connections. They have a choice of resistive volume control or transformer volume control(which I think is the way to go), and they have manually operated units and remote control operated units. Their layouts and parts quality is top notch. And the styling of their remote control unit is very cool, I think. Prices vary from about $750, all the way up to over $2500, depending on options chosen. This is worth a few minutes to look at.

If you can do without a remote, I don't think you can do any better than the Ultimate Attenuators by EVS. I believe they are discontinued, but there are some used for sale here (were $250 NEW) ocassionally. Anybody out there know better, (or even as good) performance for the $$$?

I should have my transformer volume control in the next week or two. John Chapman at bent audio will build one for you with the options you want on it. Do a search over at AA for bent 102 transformer volume control. You can contact John at his fouum at Harmonic Discord.

Thanks, I also did research which turned up some terrifyingly expensive transformer volume stuff from Silver Rock. Pretty ugly box, though, and you can buy most top tier actives for what they're asking! Still...

Third recommendation for John @ Bent Audio. He's a great guy to work with and the S&B tranny volume controls *are* among the best to be had at any price. I have a pair going into a new preamp being built which will go with these amps: http://www.electronluv.com/ , built by the same guy of course (Josh). It will be debuting at T.H.E. show (the preamp).

-Ed

I was doing just what you propose: accuphase 75v into (in my case)a SF Power 2. Sounded great, until I put a Placette volume control in between; now it sounds "greater". Seriously, this is a wonderful passive control that I recommend highly.

I've had great results running a Reference Line Audio passive pre. The build quality and aesthetic appeal is excellent. They are out of business (for now), but any good tech could fix one of these (very simple design). They can be found used quite reasonably. Happy listening.

Try the Luminous audio Axiom. Single input only! Great transparency with the caddock resistors. Tim is a great guy to deal with. I had a need for more inputs and am selling mine for 90.00. This has the more expensive volume control with the caddocks. Can't be beat for the price. He has them on ebay and is advertising that it is the best sounding preamp under 3000.00. He could be right! good luck and email me if interested.

Another recommendation for Placette. The passive linestage, at less than one third the price, took my system up a notch or two when it replaced a class A active preamp. There have been no trade-offs I have been able to detect with the Placette.

J.

I used, liked, and can recommend the Placette RVC as well, but am currently using a configuration you might want to consider: putting a TACT 2.0 (room correction system) in line and using it for room correction, volume control, and source switching. The benefits are that you get a unit that will measure and correct for room problems and imperfect speaker placement...it took some work to get eveything set in my room (actually kind of fun) but there is NO WAY that the TACT unit will be leaving my system any time soon...except to upgrade :0)

The unit has 4 digital inputs (I use a total of one), and 4 analog inputs, but using analog inputs necessitates having an optional converter (analog to digital), which some of the used units already have.

If you are not familiar with the room correction this may seem a little confusing, but the functionality is actually easy to understand and the unit easy to use.

One downside is that the volume control is in the digital domain, so if you attenuate volume significantly, there may be some loss...have noticed nothing of the sort in my system though even at low volume levels.

C.