Who makes the best passive volume control?

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.

EVS is making their Ultimate Attenuators again. They're perfect for once source systems. Ric makes them with good parts. They are really nothing but a series of the best vishay resistors, the jacks, and a volume control. Ric is all about transparancy and his stuff is quite good (I own his DAC 2 and a modded transport). You can check them out at www.tweakaudio.com. If I remember right, they're $350-ish.

I think that the best passive volume control is no passive volume control at all.

I recently noticed that a hi-end tube audio manufacturer in Vancouver made a 100 step IR remote control volume passive pre-amp, model number RV-101, which should be exactly match your requirement. They claim this is all relay switch resistor ladder type with best sound. Only one input and one output. They have a website, just type www.space-tech-lab.com to check it out. The guy run this shop is a real nice one, I have been there several times, he make really good sound tube equipments.