Eantala, i am a committed passive volume control lover. the Placette is the best all-round unit i have found in my system. i recently did a shoot-out of the Bent Silver TX102, the Silver Rock and the Placette. of the three i very slightly preferred the Silver Rock for it's amazing ease and refinement. i am staying with the Placette since it has a remote (which is essential to me) and was close enough to the Silver Rock that the remote tipped the balance. i also did think the Placette was slightly more immediate and had more air and openness.
the Bent unit was not a good impedence match in my particular system so don't take my comments here as a knock on the Bent. also, to be fair the Bent unit is about 1/4th to 1/3rd the cost of a Silver Rock (or even less if you are a DIY'r).
all three of these units would be 'perfect' for some systems.
in general, a resistive-based volume control (the Placette)is more neutral and transparent than a transformer based volume control. the claim of the transformer lovers is that transformers (or autoformers) will 'correct' things......what if i don't like being 'corrected'?
in any case, passives are VERY system dependent. but.....when they are working correctly they will bring you closer to the music.
