Passive Pre - No Regrets?

I'm not a fan of passive preamps. I've tried several, and they all failed to impress me for the same reasons that several others have posted. This, inspite of having proper impedence characteristics to suggest that the source would have no problems driving the amp and cables. I even tried the Portal Panache, which is designed with a passive pre of sorts and short signal runs...and it sounded much the same as the other passive units, which is to say they sound like Creek gear.

I'll not buy another.

Man, it's nice to see a reasonable discussion about this topic that doesn't plunge into the ditch with personal attacks and such. I also like the insight into the design philosophy of 'sphere. Since I happen to agree, I'm now inclined to give their stuff a listen.

Obviously off topic, I've often thought that speaker companies could simply describe how they voice their speakers and save me a lot of trouble. I suppose this could be said with design philosophy of almost all gear. Save the marketing jargon and tell me what you consider important in the design.

I've been very reluctant to consider any component change as being "better" until I have played many hours of music that I am very familiar with through the new addition and then back into the older gear. Sometimes it takes months to realize that "different" isn't better, just different. Invariably, it's better in some areas, worse in others and generally just different.

After many years of playing around with stuff, I now have to do all the comparisons like I always do, but I finally settle in and just let the stuff wash over me for several weeks without listening critically.

It's kinda like true love...if you have to work too hard to make it work, it ain't right. That's why I like Audiogon so much. Try to get a dealer to loan out gear for more than a couple of days when often times it takes a couple of months to come to terms with new stuff.

Factory direct with 30 day returns is the high end business model of the future.