2. amps-preamps
  3. 1186277547

Poll - Active vs. Passive preamp

Thought it might be interesting to see who's using a passive vs. active linestage. List your total system value and/or components as well.

Have been enjoying a Supratek for about 8 months now. It is indeed a killer unit. Today, for kicks, I put the Prometheus TVC back in the system - it is pretty astounding how good it sounds at 1/10th the cost. I was very impressed (again). I'll withhold further comments.

I'd previously concluded that almost all really good higher-end systems use an active linestage. I wonder how true that statement is.
paulfolbrecht

Showing 3 responses by paulfolbrecht

paulfolbrecht OP
603 posts
 
Thanks for the responses.

I should've been more specific and said "TVC" as that's what I really meant. To me, at least, resistor passives are ALWAYS unacceptable - dynamics, gone!

Of course for the TVC (or any passive) impedance matching is the key. I take that as a given - if you don't have an amp Zin/source Zout ratio of at least 50:1, and preferably better, don't even bother with a TVC. At least, don't expect it to be able to compete with state of the art tube preamps.

I current have at least 100:1 with my digital source, but don't know the Zout specifically of the graham slee phono stage - they don't publish it. But I'm sure it's low, probably way under 1K.
paulfolbrecht OP
603 posts
 
Herman,

That's certainly one view. But an active is providing impedance matching and buffering while a "passive" is not. Of course the VC itself is "passive"; I have a rather difficult time imagining anything else, don't you?

The "excess gain" argument has been stated ad naseaum. These days, nobody needs the gain of an active linestage - almost nobody certainly - yet they sound better in some systems, even when there would be plenty of gain without another gain stage.
paulfolbrecht OP
603 posts
 
Hi Herman,

Did we possibly have this conversation once before? :) I think we're arguing about semantics (if we're arguing at all).

What I stated is that the Supratek linestage itself is impressive - I'm not sure how the VC sounds on it's own. ;)

It's really two different flavors - in my system. A bit more transparency vs. a bit more body. The fact that this TVC is 'different but equal' to this near world-class active linestage is rather bloody impressive, that is for sure.
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