Passive/Active preamps: pros and cons....

HI.
I'VE USED THE PLACETTE PASSIVE, BENT AUDIO W/SILVER S&B TRANSFORMERS, EVS ATTENUATORS AND TWO ACTIVE PREAMPS, THE ARC SP 10 & FIRST SOUND DELUXE MKII.
BETWEEN THE TWO PASSIVES, THE BENT AUDIO PROVIDED FULL & IMPACTFUL BASS-THE PLACETTE WAS WHERE DID IT GO. THE PLACETTE WAS A LITTLE BETTER ON THE TOP END. THE BENT AUDIO WAS BETTER IN LAYERING.
WHEN COMRING THE BENT AUDIO TO THE FIRST SOUND, MOST AREAS WERE REMARKABLY CLOSE, DETAIL RETRIEVAL WAS BY FAR BETTER WITH THE BENT AUDIO. DETAILS THAT WERE OBSCURED BY THE FIRST SOUND WERE CLEARLY HEARD WITH THE BENT AUDIO.
I FELT BASS RESPONSE WAS EQUAL.
AT FIRST, I FELT THE BENT AUDIO WAS COMPRESSING THE SOUND,
SOMEWHAT RESTRICTING IT WHEN COMPARING TO THE FIRST SOUND, BUT LATER I REAILZED THAT THE FIRST SOUND HAD A FINE GRAIN RIDING ON THE SIGNAL THAT MADE IT SOUND MORE LIVELY (SOME WOULD CALL MORE DYNAMIC).
ALL COMPARISONS WERE MADE USING SAME RCA TYPE IC'S.
WHEN I WENT BALANCED, THERE WERE SMALL "BUT I WOULDN'T GO BACK TO RCA" IMPROVEMENTS.

Agree with Ozzy, passive in a system that takes advantage of it's (passive) advantages is very hard to beat.

I had a passive (using S&B trannies) also and the sound quality was steller in every area.

A system/room change led to much less than ideal conditions for the passive so I sold it and moved back to active.

I wound up going to my first tubed active pre-amp (Audioprism Mantissa) as I could not find an active SS design I could afford... or listen to for very long...outstanding mid-range quality will spoil you and is something the passive brought to my system...much like the almost passive Mantissa does.

Dave

I have a S&B TVC, agree with Ozzy62, and find the passives “lack of” perception is more like passives “don’t add” dynamics, colorations, etc. of active pres.

Compared to running direct - the TVC adds a tube like liquid, warm feeling in the mids, the highs smoother or slightly rounded, and pace more relaxed. The alteration are very, very slight, and much less than the actives I’ve tried, but not absolutely invisable either. Everything else seems untouched.

I haven’t compared it to many actives and would be interested in comparisons from others – like Ramses.

If you are a candidate for a passive then by all means get one. If your CDP has enough output at a low impedence and your amp is sensative with a high input impedence it should be fine. I connected my CDP direct to my amp and it has too much output and would have overdriven my amp on all CD's (no two CD's are recorded at the same level) What this means is my former active tube preamp (now retired) was really acting as an attenuator. Everything got better with it out of the loop. It was a very nice modded CJ pre. My CDP is also nice an MF Trivista which has a very hefty low impedence output. In my opnion many CD players do not qualify for passives. Try connecting yours to your amp direct first and see. Have a CD that starts out quiet and your remote in hand ready to push the stop button if it overdrives your amp. If it does not overdrive at anytime and say only produces a moderate volume level you are not a candidate for a passive. I use the Placette and love it. It sounds no different than with my CDP connected directly. I reburned some CD's @ -10db to do lengthy testing before switching to passive. I like Placette and the company is really great. I have tried a few other passives and did not like them as well. I would like to try a Bent which is TX-102 transformer based compared to Placette's Vishay resistor ladder. I think I would not like the high end but am open to anyone who wants to lend me theirs for evaluation. The Bent and other transformer based passives actually have about 6db gain, so I have read, the TX-102 is a step up X-former. Good luck!

ET

Electroid, it is precisely because most cd players are capable of driving amplifiers to full output that the Placette Passive was made. Unless it was simply a typo, I'm wondering why you think that most CDPs are not "qualified for passive". There's a reason why Placette decided to put in finer volume steps in the lower volume ranges. In most systems and sources, the Placette passive has more than enough gain.