Passive Pre - No Regrets?

No regrets here. Went from a SFL2 to a DIY TVC. I bought the parts from John Chapman at Bent Audio, great guy. To be honest, I didn't think it could work. Seriously, transformers?! I just had to hear what so many were raving about.

The SFL did have a touch more drive and bass but I came to think of that as exageration. My speakers are eager to rumble at 16 Hz and the TVC was happy to oblige. Compared to the veil that was lifted, the SFL didn't have a chance. The trick is that I have very dynamic speakers and about 3000 watts of amplification, total. I also selected a CDP that has 4V into AES/EBU and low output impedance(< 100, although < 1K is all that's suggested). XLR cables between the pre and amps also raises the output. Amps aren't much of an issue for matching other than moderate sensitivity. A friend built his own after hearing mine and is very happy. His system isn't nearly as extreme but very nice.

With passives, resistive or TVC, matching components becomes critical.

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.