Opinions on Placette passive pre


Does anyone have any experience with the Placette passive preamp device? Is it as good as its advertised to be? Any comments would be appreciated. I am thinking of ordering one and have not had any chance to listen to it.
pugstub77b1
I use the Placette Remote Volume Control, which is a passive pre without any buffering or switching, in one of my systems. Like most passives it is difficult to match with a solid state amp without losing some dynamics. But with my valve amps it is magic. I use 6m of cable between DAC and Placette and then 1m from Placette to power amps with no discernable loss of dynamics (and I am very picky about a system's dynamic pace and life). I even tried it the other way around (ie. 6m between Placette and amps) and found it worked OK with only a small loss of dynamics. The important thing here is the power amps the Placette is expected to drive, followed by the cable and length of cable it has to drive. But with my very sensitive valve amps the Placette works better than anything else I have tried - and by a huge margin. Most valve amps are really easy to drive. In the right system the Placette is very very transparent and very very musical. The only downside is the very poor build quality (best you do not look inside) - top quality components are used but the fixing methods beggar belief. But there is nothing about the build quality that suggests it will not be reliable provided you refrain from using it as a frisbee.
I have a CAT preamp and wanted to try a remote control. Other CAT owners talked about the Placette Audio unit. I contacted Guy Hammell at Placette and ordered their volume control unit with a 30 day trial. The CAT is one of the most transparent preamps available and the Placette didn't degrade the sound at all. The Placette preamp has the same remote unit built into it so I would imagine it is an excellent preamp. Guy is easy to work with and accessible and you can't beat a 30 day trial period. Good luck.