Bent Audio Autoformer vs Tube Pre

Grannyring

What has been your experience?

In a system friendly to passives including a good autoformer type the music can be very good indeed. To some the sound is ideal, and based on personal preference, better then actives they have tried in the same system. Reasonable conclusions based on preference.

My experience is a great tube active has sounded better in my system with components that are indeed passive friendly. I have tried several good ones from Placette, Lightspeed and Bent. The active tube has won out in my systems and to my tastes. Simply more natural, meaty and fleshed out if you will. This is just my experience and I cannot claim you or anyone else will reach the same conclusion.

Fun to try for yourself and experiment.

Shakeydeal ...

slooooowwwwllllyyyy.....

A Conn Yankee long haul truck driver gets lost down south and shouts out on his CB .. can anybody tell me if I'm in LOUIS-VIL

A local shouts him back .. yes you are but it's pronounced LOU-E VIL

The Yankee says well it's spelled on the map like LOUIS VIL

The local says pull over and we'll go in that eatery and ask the girl behind the counter how it's pronounced and the loser buys

They pull over and go in and the Conn Yankee walks up to the counter and says to the girl ... please tell me where we are and say it very slowly

The girl behind the counter looks the Yankee in the eye and says ,,, Bur----ger ------King

Grannyring

What tube pre do you use and what passive autoformer did you use to compare it to?

Don't you own a TRL Dude? At least that is what I have seen you post previously. Surely you must know Grannyring owns one given the TRL family is pretty well connected.

I'm guessing you probably know where I stand on this subject as well given my very open opinions about passive preamps. Although I have not compared any passive preamp to The Dude, I have compared them to many active preamps. You could do a lot worse than the Bent modules, but your system has to be optimized for it. Just for ha ha's contact Audiogon member Dgarrettson. He implemented an LDR volume control in his Atma-Sphere MP-3 preamp. Could give you the best of both worlds.