What is a passive preamp?

preamp means "before the amplifier."

Those who think a passive preamp shouldn't be called that because it doesn't amplify don't understand the English language.

Active preamps and passive preamps all come "before the amplifier" so the nomenclature is correct.

Rwwear, if you look at their website they lump all of them in the category preamplifiers and all have preamplifier in their name.. Even if they did describe them as you say, which they don't, just because AR calls them one thing does not make it so. Calling a pig a horse does not make it a horse.

http://www.audioresearch.com/products.html

Dopogue, saying "pre means it comes before" doesn't mean it describes everything that comes before. If I say something is in the pre civil war era it is understood that is the time leading up to the war, not everything that ever happened before; AND it is not the war that came before the civil war as some here would have you believe.

Kirkus is correct. It is a silly argument. It is well understood what it means. It is the box that goes between the source(s) and the power amp. It can be as simple as some jacks for in/out and a volume control and you can add what you want from there; input selector, active buffers, active gain stages, tone controls, phono stage, balance control, loudness function, etc.

A linestage is a preamplifier that can only deal with line level sources (CD players, DACs, tape decks, tuners) i.e. it is a preamplifier that does not have a phono stage.

and you were surely joking when you said a preamp had to have a phono stage?

Since most preamps (even active ones) in normal operation are usually used to reduce the signal level, not increase it, shouldn't they really be called pre-attenuators?

Sorry Mr. Wear, you are incorrect. Here's a lesson for you and your giggling buddies at the stereo shop.. The signal coming out of a typical CD player or other line level source is enough to drive most amplifiers way past clipping. Therefore, even an active preamp in most systems outputs a signal that is less than the input signal at reasonable volume levels.. This is called attenuation. I would think someone who works in a stereo shop would know this.

Amother lesson for you. Some active preamps at maximum output do not amplify the signal. They have a gain of 0db and sometimes just a bit less. The active stage is used as a buffer between the source and the amp. To call them preamps would then be incorrect by your definition

As far as I know there is no legislative body that decides what words like preamp "technically" mean. Why are you so adamant it must contain a phono stage? Even your example of AR as a refrence fell on it's face since they call all of their's preamps whether they have a phono stage or not. If I and many others prefer the definition that it is the device before the amplifier that contains the volume control then how can you prove us wrong?

I will venture a guess that you are old enough that you remember when CDs did not exist. If not, here's another lesson for you. In that era most if not all preamps did contain a phono stage. When CDs caught on and many had only a CD player as a source manufacturers came out with preamps that did not have a phono. To distinquish them from those that do they coined the term line stage and some started calling those that did have phono a full function preamp, but if you like the definition that a preamp is the amplifier before the amplifier then line stages certainly fit right in.

Mr wear, from their official website as I pointed out in a link in a previous post.

http://www.audioresearch.com/products.html

MP1 Multichannel Preamplifier
SP17 Class-A Full-Function Vacuum Tube Preamplifier
LS17 Class-A Vacuum Tube Stereo Line Preamplifier
LS26 Class-A Vacuum Tube Stereo Line Preamplifier

If you care to notice they call every one of these a preamplifier.

I accept your apology.