Larry to tower...get ready for the flames...here comes a statement which will be trounced on...
Personally, I've NEVER liked passives...ever.
They sound 'washed out' to me. It's almost as if the input signal to the pre is somehow absorbed more than passed and that the result is an anemic output--dynamically.
I suppose that someone on the other side of the ledger would simply claim the opposite--more pure no 'changes made by poor circuitry in the gain stage.'
I've heard several along the years and just don't get what I like.
For example--growing up in audio, my favorite preamps were,
Conrad Johnson's, (I know they use lower case) Premier 3
Gryphon's LS1 (Model may be wrong) $9000. in the late '80's.
They were both different, but both incredible.
The cj was a beautiful sounding, (though colored) preamp, with space within space along with beautiful textures.
The Grypon was a work of art, both asthetically and musically (electrically) employing two outboard power supplies. It DROVE, DROVE, DROVE, the amplifier like no other up until that point...by a wide margin.
One day, slow day in retail, a guy came in from New Jersey...he'd been to every store in North America, by his own admission...anyway, he came in to hear what we were doing. For giggles, I said, I'll bet you've never heard the Adcom GFA 535 (60wpc). It was a $299. amp back then as I remember.
I hooked it up to the THIEL CS5..(which dropped to 1.5 OHMS in the bass, very tough load to drive).
I played it with the Adcom, probably GTP500 Preamp/Tuner combo piece, that it was normally paired with.
He yawned...of course so did I.
Then, hooked the Grypon to it and he was open mouth stunned. WOW!
He said, I've never heard a preamp that controls like that.
'Me neither'.
Gryphon sent 13 into the United States that year...I sold 11 of them in Louisville, KY, the Mecca of High End Audio.
lol.
Buy a regular preamp not a passive...all things being equal, you'll be happier.
Good listening,
Larry
Personally, I've NEVER liked passives...ever.
They sound 'washed out' to me. It's almost as if the input signal to the pre is somehow absorbed more than passed and that the result is an anemic output--dynamically.
I suppose that someone on the other side of the ledger would simply claim the opposite--more pure no 'changes made by poor circuitry in the gain stage.'
I've heard several along the years and just don't get what I like.
For example--growing up in audio, my favorite preamps were,
Conrad Johnson's, (I know they use lower case) Premier 3
Gryphon's LS1 (Model may be wrong) $9000. in the late '80's.
They were both different, but both incredible.
The cj was a beautiful sounding, (though colored) preamp, with space within space along with beautiful textures.
The Grypon was a work of art, both asthetically and musically (electrically) employing two outboard power supplies. It DROVE, DROVE, DROVE, the amplifier like no other up until that point...by a wide margin.
One day, slow day in retail, a guy came in from New Jersey...he'd been to every store in North America, by his own admission...anyway, he came in to hear what we were doing. For giggles, I said, I'll bet you've never heard the Adcom GFA 535 (60wpc). It was a $299. amp back then as I remember.
I hooked it up to the THIEL CS5..(which dropped to 1.5 OHMS in the bass, very tough load to drive).
I played it with the Adcom, probably GTP500 Preamp/Tuner combo piece, that it was normally paired with.
He yawned...of course so did I.
Then, hooked the Grypon to it and he was open mouth stunned. WOW!
He said, I've never heard a preamp that controls like that.
'Me neither'.
Gryphon sent 13 into the United States that year...I sold 11 of them in Louisville, KY, the Mecca of High End Audio.
lol.
Buy a regular preamp not a passive...all things being equal, you'll be happier.
Good listening,
Larry