Best Sounding Passive Preamp

Will second Jedinite24. The McCormack TLC-1 is hard to beat, if you can find one.

An Axiom from Luminous audio... You can't go wrong at that price it's a no brainer. Great to have as back-up.

Tony

Oh, one I forgot to mention that was first-rate is the $135 Pot-in-a-Box from Music Reference. On the down side, it is built with a cheap plastic box (though a metal box version is available for 3x the price), on the plus side, the plastic box is non-ferrous, and it has an extremely well made Noble attenuator made many years ago, that isn't made anymore because of the high cost of manufacturing. When you don't need buffering, hard to beat, except for the $450 Lightspeed Attenuator.

I have both the TLC-1 and the Lightspeed. The McCormack is maximally convenient and very good sounding. The Lightspeed is maximally inconvenient but practically unbeatable sounding. Both are around the same price, i.e. cheap, so there are some very cost effective passives out there.

I bought the Axiom from Luminous Audio when my pre went to the shop..and thought I was buying a cheap POS to fill in...wow..was I surprised. It made me realize passive is worth a second look.