Thoughts on Placette Preamps?

I own the passive line stage ($1400) and it is the best "preamp" I have heard under $4k. I have tried many (Krell KRC-3, Mark Levinson 380, Conrad Johnson PV14, etc.) and this was the only one that didn't muck up the sound in some way. On my 200wpc solid state amp it sounds great but I tried it on my friend's 10wpc tube monoblock based system and it was a little *too* transparent, his CJ tube pre was a much better match. With the 30 day in home trial, why not try it out?

Considering the high quality level of your system, the Placette Passive will absolutely stun you. If you really want to hear what your system sounds like, you must give it a try. Since I put the Placette into my system (heavily modified Dan Wright 9000ES, Classe CA-300, Harmonic Tech, Spendor SP1/2s, Velodyne ULD-15 IIs), I find myself unable to sample various tracks on multiple CDs. Once I put on a disc, I'm so amazed at the sound of each cut, I end up listening to the entire CD. I attribute much of this to the fact that the Placette actually lets me hear the 9000ES, which, after Dan's work, is a super source for both redbook and SACDs. The Placette is highly recommended, as are the mods performed by Dan Wright. Give yourself some very happy holidays ;-).

thanks for all the replies. i am still debating between trying the placette and just getting a used BAT tube preamp (5i, 30, or 50). i just like the functionality and appearance of the BAT preamps and it would probably sound great running fully balanced with the vk-75. also, i read that the higher end BAT's use vishay resistors, which is placette's claim-to-fame. decisions, decisions...

blackie: you mentioned that the placette sounded a little "too transparent" with a tube amp...what did you mean? was it harsh on bad recordings or something?

What I meant was that his amps were voiced with a tube preamp in mind so when we tried it with the Placette the small tube amps sounded a little thin and bright. When we replaced it with the warm sounding CJ tube preamp the the tonal balance was more natural.

...the only thing you won't do with passive is to couple it with SET tube amp -- the major nonsence!
A little too transparent in straight language means too underdynamic. That is the case when you have output of source less or equal to sencitivity of amplifier. SET amps have extreamly low sencitivity of ~1.9V and have a very low gain ~10dB. It means that you need a good 4V from your source output.
BATs claim to have a different story. I'm 100% sure that they've got much higher input sencitivity and much higher gain. So it's not about tubes or SS in that issue. SS amps might even have a disadvantage of lower input impedance which is much harder to match with passives.