Any active/passive preamps with penny & giles pot?

If i can remember correctly, i think that the Dennesen JC-80's used these. This was a three chassis ( left channel, right channel, power supply ) dual mono SS preamp designed by John Curl in 1980, hence the model name.

Prior to the CTC Blowtorch, this was Curl's most advanced attempt at designing a preamp. From what i understand, Dennesen did not build these to the standards that Curl had originally hoped for and there were also some other personal problems involved in the business relationship there. Rumour has it that this parting of company was what caused Curl to start his own company, Vendetta Research. One can only assume that the name was chosen for specific reasons, but this might be hear-say.

Other than that, the JC-80 is an excellent preamp with even more hidden potential if one wants to use it as a building block. If it were available today, it would easily command $12 - $15K or so. I know that Clark Johnsen would like it as one can invert polarity at the flip of a switch : ) Sean
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Savant Audio in Princeton NJ had some passive pre's built with Penny & Giles POTS, built very well with cardas wire and jacks and Delrin case... price around $ 5K or so... I don't know if any are still available at this time.

I have one in my system right now, the HORCH 1.2 P&G (the penny & giles pot is an option). The preamp is active solid state including phonostage. No remote function.

I am still a bit in shock that this preamp sounds better than my 3 times as expensive (and 4 times the size) Audionet PRE G2, which I have not been able to top until now.

HORCH is a small company in Germany, I would be happy to give you more information and put you in touch with them if you are interested. The website is www.horch-elektroakustik.de but no English content. The 1.2 P&G can be found under products in the classic line.

All the best

Joerg

I have a Wavelength Audio Sine with 6SN7 gain tubes, valve regulated, tube rectified and P&G pot - sweet!

The P&G pot is generally considered to be a premium part. But, like any part, a good designer listens to the result to determine if that part works best, rather than picking that part because it is good for marketing purposes. I talked to one designer who was anguished about a particular, mid-priced pot going out of production. I thought he could substitute something like the P&G pot and he said that cost was not an issue; in his particular design, the cheaper pot sounded better. I wonder how many amps touting the extensive use of Blackgate caps and Vishay resistors were designed with these components because of sonic, versus marketing, considerations.