Passive Pre - No Regrets?

Darkmoebius: Yes very short speaker cables I actually have built a pair to my flavor mixing copper and silver transformer wire, right now I think I am missing a couple of copper strands to give it more body. The ICs are Gabriel Gold bought here in Agon, I also have Nordost Blue Haven but they are a bit forward and shy on bass, I tried Siltech SQ80 and they were too dark, Black Mountain were too light..Gabriel mixed good in my system, 1 meter between DAC and amps. 4 inches one strand kimber blue (from 8tc) from the attenuator to the input tube inside the amp :-)
I got the PLC partly because I got a good deal and because I heard better reviews of autoformer vs transformer...since I got the perfect setup for passives I might give the transformer a try, probably the Promiteus Audio since they are affordable. (say against th 6.5k for the AudioConsulting)
Atmasphere: I find Pubul57s question very ineteresting also, If you could design the perfect source-preamp-cables for your amps, would it be passive or active?

Thanks

I came across Dave Slagle via Thom Mackris at Galibier Design. Thom was very impressed with the autoformer Dave built for last years RMAF. Lynn Olson recently reviewed the Monarchy M24 DAC/preamp and used the autoformer in the review system. He gave the combinaton a glowing review. I certainly give both these gentleman a lot of credibility. I myself own an S&B TVC custom built for me by Kevin Carter. I have heard the Sonic Euphoria and did not like it as much as my TVC, but when I'm at RMAF this year you can bet I'm going to see what it will take to get my hands on a Dave Slagle autoformer.

Resistor-based passives, TVCs and autoformers all have their place. Just like anything in audio it all comes down to a well thought out and executed design. There are many fine flavors to choose from and that what makes this hobby fun for me.

I wasn't dawging the PLC..only pointing out. One shouldn't confuse the two. Whether one is superior to the other is in the ear of the beholder. Hey Jsadurni..if the Promitheus doesn't work out for you. I'll buy it from you for what you paid for it. I already know the out come..once you get it, I'll have to pry it from your cold dead hands!LOL

Good listening

Herman wrote:
"I don't see this as a drawback as the issue with DC is no different if you use a resitive voltage divider of some sort."

But, both Autoformers and resistive pres are significantly different than a TVC in that regard. Galvanic isolation means that no DC will pass through the TVC at all. Of course, I think most sources have a capacitor near their output specifically for DC blocking.

Anyway, it's best to absolutely sure that no dc is being passed by all sources before making that very expensive leap of faith.

Another major TVC advantage(if needed), is that they can easily convert single-ended signals to fully balanced for driving very long XLR cables with little signal degradation. A big advantage when your equipment rack is on one side of the room and amps next to the speakers on the other.

Actually, I have compared autoformer vs TVC. It's really simple when you wire your own. Just use one side. To be honest, it was a mistake and was supposed to be a mute switch. Being a switch, I could compare instantly. I thought the difference between the two was almost negligable. The autoformer did have a slight advantage in the bass but the ability to use both RCA and XLR inputs swung the vote to TVC.

I've also had the opportunity to compare silver versus copper windings with a friend's TVC. Silver worked better with tube amps and soft domes but I preferred the copper with SS and ribbon tweeters. Odd, since I've always favoured silver or silver plated IC's.

Over the years, I have also tried passive pots and attenuators in various configurations but I haven't tried the Placette. There was a big difference between pots I tried and a simple resistor in line. Don't ask me why. I have never directly compared the attenuator to the TVC.