Passive Preamps

Tholt, not necessarily.

Lrsky votes for an active preamp. I give props to Lrsky's recommendations.

Yet, I own a passive preamp (SMc Audio VRE-1).
Tvad (Threads | Answers)

My point was that Phaelon advocated your opinion, which was advocating Lrsky's opinion. It had nothing to do with what you yourself owned or even personally thought on the matter.

Tholt, my point was that you are not necessarily 1 against 3. I think Lrsky
knows what he's talking about when it comes to audio, yet I don't presently
subscribe to his general recommendation of an active preamp over a passive
preamp, and I was using my situation to explain why this is so.

I thought my post was supportive of your use of a passive, but perhaps I
misunderstood something in your string of posts.

TVAD,
I'm thinking of the 6 Blind Men and the Elephant...all different perceptions.
If I heard your particular passive with your system I may do a complete 180 in my thinking. While I've been exposed to probably more gear than most people I tend to come of as preachy--god I hate when I do that. But for me to categorically say that passives aren't as good is pretty dumb headed of me. In my experience, with the combinations I've heard, I've always prefered an active--I may need more and different comparisons to be won over.

Guys, I'm not one who believes there is a uniformly best anything for any
particular situation. There are always trade-offs to a design, and there are far
too many differences among listener preferences.

I will agree that an active preamp provides easier integration into a wider variety
of systems due to impedance matching and amplifier sensitivity, and in my
experience, not that it means a damn thing, an active preamp has usually
provided a larger "jump" factor to the music. Now, whether this
"jump" factor is faithful to the recording is another matter, but it's
not always a priority to some listeners.

Larry, I have the H2O and Fire preamp. My sound went from edgy and bright, to soft and warm, to just plain natural. These changes occurred while using the same power source. The builder ob both the Fire and the H2O as a much inferior source than I. He has never heard the full potential his gear is capable of. My findings show me his gear just gets better with every positive system change I make. The question is, how did he know which way to design the Fire preamp without knowing it's potential? He knows, because he has an intimate knowledge of all components that goes into making amps. My system is proof supreme knowledge trumps the ear when making judgement calls for excellent designers.