Does remote control degrade the sound of tube preamps?

OP,

Great idea… really hard to implement. Especially since keeping cables as short as possible, hiding them, and the need to have your listening position out in the room away from all the walls are all important constraints in having good sound… and not killing yourself tripping on something… an SAF. 

After owning 3 preamps without remote and now having a remote preamp, I would never change.  

I own an Atma-Sphere MP-3 preamp, which I purchased used without remote. I used it for a bit with the manual stepped attenuator, but ultimately couldn't live without the convenience so I sent it back to Ralph to have the remote installed. If the sound quality decreased I can't detect it, and it's still the best preamp I've ever owned and a great match for my Atma-Sphere M-60 mono blocks.

My experience is every recording has a sweet spot for volume, and the only way to find that sweet spot is to be able to adjust volume from your listening chair. I believe a remote is a better answer overall than long interconnects or speaker cables that might enable you to have the preamp next to your chair.

$600 to $1,000 for the Volume Control? Good Grief! No wonder the reviewers take the time to talk about them. I thought the cost was $50 to $100 before we start talking about ‘knob feel.’

Yes, $600 to $1,000 IS a lot to spend on a volume control component.  But, it is one of the most important piece in the signal chain and can seriously degrade the signal and/or cause channel imbalances if the left and right channels do not track perfectly.  Spending for quality here makes far more sense than spending it on other stuff, like fuses, and fancy power supply caps.