Are passive preamps better?

The ARC LS-7 listed for $1395 when introduced in 1995, so that price seems to fall in line with used older gear. Some of ARC's older gear has higher resale value, like the SP-10 or SP-11. These sell for almost $2K and are over 20 years old.

Cheers,
John

I would look for a used Audible Illusions 3A at the $1000 price point - 4-6 years old. But before you go the tube pre route, if you choose to, you need to find out what the input impedance of the HK amp is, to be sure that the tube pre will drive adequately, should not be a problem for most pres, but it will depend on that spec to some extent.

Don't assume that you need a tube preamp to give you "warm" liquid sound. I have found that with the right amp and speakers, an all solid state configuration can provide the same "tube magic" and depth of field (plus all the other usual hi fi sound descriptors) tubes are famous for. Tube magic for me has, so far, been a fairly elusive animal...

Better no different yes. Passives are not for every system. To achieve the best results using a TVC for example would require a CDP with an output voltage of 2V minimum. The input sensitivity of the amp being used should be very low under 1 volt.
There are 3 types of passives; TVC, Resistor based and autoformer. They all do their job. IMO the TVC seems to solve the issue best. Look at the Bent units as well as Antique Sound Lab units. The music First is a winner But over priced IMO. Happy listening.

Pipedream

Dpac996, what SS do you find has the attributes of good tubes? I would love to stop worrying about biasing and tube replacement, but unfortunatley I can't find SS that does the job. My most recent stab was the Pass XA30.5 which is proabably the best sounding SS I've heard, but still not the sound of tubes (for good or bad).