Resitor Passive

I don't know. The Pot-in-a-Box is Noble - same one used in the ARC SP6 back in the old days. Extremely expensive if manufactured to those standards to day, but I have no idea if, and to what extent, this makes a noticeable difference; of course, I have 50 year old ears.

I'm pretty sure that Jud Barber uses a certain Alps pot. In my LA-150 (version II) the manual said "it was not the highest quality, but it did sound the best".

-Jake

I went back and forth with the resistor-based PiaB and the TVC with SB102s and for my ears, in my system I preferred the resistor based volume control - which I was not expecting since the consensus seems to be with the TVCs. While the consensus is in favor of TVC, Roger Modjeski who makes my amp (RM9SE)is clearly in favor of keeping transformers out of the volume control thinking they cause more problems than they solve. I suspect that in the right combination, simple, high-quality attenuators provide a purer connection to the source.

I'm wondering if there is some synergy between the PiaB and the RM9 that Roger is exploiting? I am thinking of getting an RM10 and if I do may experiment with the PiaB.

On the other hand I've also been chatting to John Chapman about getting the new Bent which he will customize with a built in phono stage circuit that I will supply him with.

Decisions, decisions...

I used the PiaB with the RM10 as well and it worked very, very well, but I didn't have the K&K at the time. You should call Roger to hear his side of the attenuator versus TVC approach, the fella at Goldpoint said pretty much the same thing and it seems to make theoretical sense, and it sure worked in my system. Interesting, Roger also makes an RM4 or 5 preamp that has a built in phone stage and operates as pure passive for a linestage, same potentiometer as the one in the PiaB (a 1960s Noble that Roger said would be too expensive to make today). That being said, I think there is some consensus that John Chapman does great work and his TAP is among the very best passives available -- On the other hand, if your thinking about the RM10 you might want to investigate Roger's preamp.