Gotta love Nelson Pass

I ended up with original First Watt B1 buffer preamp

No problem the B1 buffer is unity gain, which Nelson 1st designed to be a (no name), buffer for my passive "Lightspeed Attenuator" preamp so it could drive one or two very low input impedance amps of his which some of my Lightspeed owners had, this worked a treat for them.

Latter Nelson released it and called it the "B1 Buffer", and designed a diy around it on DiyAudio forums, and also I think a ready made retail unit First Watt B1 preamp.

Still to me if all is good between passive pre and the amp, no buffer is the best buffer whether it’s got gain or not.
And that’s why Nelson says "you suffer the effects of active circuitry only when additional gain is necessary" on the Aleph L, meaning passive sounds better on it up to 3 o’clock on the volume control after which the active buffer with gain comes in, then it’s not quite as good.

Cheers George

It’s all about the design Implementation and the overall parts quality second.Less = More for Sure.

Kenny.

So, First Watt conversation, excellent!!! How many people have a SA/4e?  Or have owned?

Seems like it become addictive when someone buying First Watt stuff. I decided to buy another preamp for my FW F2J power amp. 

Soon i will be able to compare my FW B1 Buffer Preamp and Pass Aleph L. 

After 7 month of using my B1 i realized that i need at least 4 inputs to switch between different phono stages. The B1 has only two inputs, the Aleph L has 4 inputs. 

Another reason to buy Aleph L was the second output which can be used for an active SUB if i will buy Zu Undertone sub for my Druid speakers. 

It was not easy to find the latest version of Aleph L which is passive if the volume control knob position is not higher than 3 o'clock. I'm sure that i don't need an active gain in my system, because even with B1 buffer preamp i only use 10-20% of the volume control. It was hard to imagine that less than 5 watt Power Amp (F2J) is more than enough for 101db speakers in my big room. 

if someone compared the same preamps (First Watt B1 and Pass Labs Aleph L mkII) please share your experience. 

thanks