Modern Linestages

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Onemug

Start a power cord thread and I've seen more peace and harmony in an Oakland Raiders parking lot after a game. :-)

Hilarious!! That quote goes in the Audiogon hall of fame.
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Atmasphere, could you perhaps comment on the original post. I notice that your top linestage retails for around $12k and weighs slightly less than 50lbs (a two box design no less). This is more or less in line price and weight wise with products being offered by VTL, Pass, EMM or EAR. As a thought exercise, what would your top linestage feature if you built it to a $35k price point?

"Charles1dadYou could certainly conclude also that the passive units are`nt passing the"complte" signal,thus there`s some degree of subtraction of musical information.Charles1dad"

This statement is not correct and only valid if one has not implemented the passive correctly.
As I've stated in my 2nd post on the 08-22-11, if followed then you will get it "all" as the source wanted you to hear it, even more than any actives preamps.

Once again here is the impementation that's needed to make a passive become electricly transparent to the source.

1: Is to make sure the sources ouput impedance is 5 x or less the attenuators input impedance.
2: To make sure the power amps input impedance is 5 x or more the attenuators output impedance.

Cheers George

George,that would imply that the source passes the signal perfectly, I don`t believe that`s the case. The source itself may be incapable of preserving/passing the signal as well as a premium quality active linestage(just because source to amp is direct does`nt mean the signal is transmitted "fully" intact) Again it really is ultimately determined by the final sound result. No matter how you state your pro passive opinion, as I`ve said before I know what sounds best to me. We`ll just have to respectfully disagree.

No that implies that a correctly implemented passive will be true to the source, just like a direct source to poweramp connection is the best you can get.
It's up to you to get the best source you can. Then if you have to spend $15,000 -$35,000 on an active preamp to change the sound of the source, then you are colouring/distorting what the source gives, and all you are doing is an expensive bandaid fix of the source.

Cheers George