Passive Pre - No Regrets?

i have a sonic euphoria. it is the most revealing component i have auditioned in my stereo system to date.

it is an excellent analytical tool for discovering differences between other components, especially cable.

depending upon the rest of your stereo system, this product may be a boon or bane.

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.

The key to getting a passive system together is to ensure that everything from stem to stern (uh, I mean from source to power amp) matches properly for the passive line controller that you select (i.e., impedence, output voltage, interconnect length, etc).

If this is well done then there is a good chance that a passive could work nicely in your application; they are quiet, transparent and very honest with the music (at least in my system).

The rest of it is like any other component - Is the price worth it to you? Do the imperfections (and there always are imperfections) irritate you more or less than any other component (at least at that price)?

Listening is the final arbiter in all audio choice.

In my case it worked out very well and gets better all the time (Sonic Euphoria PLC).

Good Luck & Happy Listening!

Gmood, where did you put your buffer and what did you use?

What you have is basically an active preamp broken into several sections. An active preamp usually consists of some switching - maybe an active gain stage that also acts as a buffer - passive volume control - maybe another gain stage which also acts as a buffer.

Most go switching - volume control - active stage, but some, like at least some VAC preamps, go switching - active stage - volume control.

The beauty of the active is that the designer can optimize the interaction of the gain stages and the volume control. Much tougher to do out here in the real world. So people try a pasive and fail and dismiss them and blame it on the fact that it is passive. Kind of ironic really considering that at the heart of their active preamp is a passive volume control.

I went from Active to passive, It was very difficult to get the passive working properly. It is hard work but it will be rewarded.
As a rule the output impedance of the source should be 10 times lower than the input impedance. My DAC has an output impedance of 50 ohms, my passive has an impedance of 1k (20 times 50 ohms) and my amps have an input impedance of 1meg. So it works nice, I tired impedances with my passives from 100k, 10k, 5k, 2.5k and 1.2k, believe me the diference from 1.2k to 1k is very noticeable, I get much better bass and fuller sound with 1k.
This is a shunt type resistor based passive with caddock resistors, and a resistor ladder going to ground, a pot does not work as good to ground!

I had a PLC and hated it....
I sometimes miss my Metaxas active SS preamp.

Best.