Bent Audio Autoformer vs Tube Pre

Just for the record for those who could not gather it from my previous post Atma-Sphere is building the custom preamp I mentioned. While I firmly believe in the benefits of a passive preamp, one of my amps is an Atma-Sphere S-30 and after many conversations with Ralph decided that it would be worth hearing the preamp for both technical and synergistic reasons. I am moving from digital to a completely analog front end with turntable and reel tape deck, the latter taking the output directly from the tape head. Given the phono catridge is inherently balanced as is the tape deck I needed a solution that could handle the balanced designs of my sources. The convenience of getting this in a one box preamp was also influential in my decision. So for the first time in a while I will have an active circuit in my preamp. I look forward to the comparison.

Specs wise the amps are fine as is the Lynx. I've got that covered

I was not asking about specs but sound. Can we presume that the Lynx is more euphonic thus nullifying the need for a tubed pre or was it simply to chase a theoretically lower noise floor with balanced topology?

I do know Paul at TRL (despite being anti remotes like other purist pre-amp designers I know) has used the Bent remote unit with Dudes and it apparently works well. I know one former Dude owner who said it was seamless. I am considering one for my next Dude....

My source is fully balanced so to take full advantage of that, a fully balanced pre is needed.

I had a Bent remote (ALPS) on my Dude. It's just a motor that's on the back of the Shallco attenuator. There's nothing to it.

The Bent Autoformer VC is excellent. Sixty-one 1dB steps, from -54dB to +7dB, all done via instrumentation-quality reed relays rated for billions of operations. The power they consume is used solely for the relay switching circuit. I love them in my preamp. You even get a balance control since each channel has it's own autoformer unit. The cool thing is that with a little surgery, you can restack the nickel laminations to get various amounts of primary inductance - stock they are stacked 3X3 for ~155H. That works fine with my preamp since I'm using the low Z mu-output of the plate CCS, but they can be restacked to 1X1 for ~190H if you like, or 6X6 for ~100H, etc.

They make having a remote control no detriment to the sonics, and there's nothing more ideal than adjusting the volume and balance from the comfort of your listening chair, from where you'll be...listening.

I think it would be interesting if we had more interaction from more manufacturers.

Absolutely. It would make this site more intellectually stimulating and more Asylum-like. The usual pattern is behind the scenes sniping and "programming" of end user/disciples to do their public bidding. Sketchy.

Tony, that sounds like an interesting and logical experiment. No more digital? I can understand that. If I did not have a 10 mo, I would love to run down the tape thing. I will have to settle for DSD and other attempts at SOTA digital....