Music Reference RM9 - user comments please

Pubul57,

I used my K&K Audio TVC with the RM9 and it was a great match. This was back when I lived in Santa Barbara and was able to visit Roger to have the RM9 upgraded to MkII and found he prefers it with a passive pre. He ran an RM200 with the pot in the box with his new electrostatic speakers (these are phenomenal for the price). A great system. I wouldn't be surprised if it gave the Joule a run for the money. I sold my LA-100MkIII when I got the K&K TVC.

I no longer have the RM9 as the guy I bought it from bought it back from me. However, I am considering a system reconfiguration and trying a set of new speakers that may be a very good match for the RM10. Rogers amps are excellent.

Very interesting. I've been using the Music Reference Pot-in-the-Box today (just got it) with the CAT JL2 and it blew me away how good this thing sounded in absolute terms, and ridiculous for $135. I've got the RM9 MKII coming next week and am eager to try it with the passive; I did not get a chance to try it with the RM10 MKII which I just sold this week, a very sweet 35 watts. I know me, and if this passive works wonders with the RM 9, I'm going to start thinking about stepped attenuators, transformer/autoformers....

I auditioned Ozzy62's system several years ago. He used an RM9 with a K&K TVC, the sound was phenomenal! I'm a former owner of the MK2..terrific sounding amplifier...I wish I still owned one. These particular tube amplifiers have plenty of gain, making them passive friendly. You should at least try a TVC with it just for grins.If you like the pot..you'll love the TVC!

I have not used a TVC, but did have a Placette RVC and Placette Active at one time. I think Roger's Pot-in-a-Box with 30-year old + Noble potentiometer actually sounds better than the Placette RVC. I am curious about the transformer based passives, but I do wonder why Roger who can build whatever he wants thinks that is not the best approach, especially with his amps. I have to assume that a transformer must add distortion to some degree compared to pure passive volume control, and that it must be less than linear across the frequency spectrum, most notably on the extreme highs and lows - but I'm no engineer. I do know that with my source, short run of Cardas GR (super low capacitance)and both Roger's amps and my CAT JL2 with high sensitivity and high input impedance I have a pretty ideal set-up for a pure passive set-up. I'm not sure that a TVC might not be subtraction by addition in my case. I'll say if you have a RM10 or 9 and you have not tried a passive volume control you owe to yourself to try it, no matter what active linestage you are currently using. And if you are on a budgetm I can't imagine a much better entry level system than a Pot-in-the-Box matched to a used RM10.

I got the K&K TVC with dual volume controls and it works very well with RM9 and CAT JL2, but the Joule has its own charms so I guess I'll own two preamps (I mean 3) for a while. I placed an order for the RM9 Special Edition, I think EL34 based tubes amps work particularly well with my Merlin VSM-MXes. The Music Reference RM9 is the first tube amp I've had that has me seriously considering selling the CAT, which remains the best amp I have ever heard.