Placette RVC review in Stereophile

"...inexpensive solution." Aye, there's the rub! It only costs $1,500.00 so it must not be "...even close..." to an active pre-amp. I tried an $8,200.00 C-J, a $3,500.00 Classe, $6,500.00 BAT, and a used Krell (think around $5,000.00 new). The Placette put the music in my room with the most authority and seduction, period. Maybe I just have a magic match between amp, CD player, and Placette. I don't know as I've only used it with one amp. I get excited by music with the Placette and have substantially increased listening time (and music expenditures).

By the way...John Renbourn! I haven't thought of him in 25-30 years. Thanks for the tip and I'll spend some time at my favorite record store (Dearborn Music in Michigan) and at Amazon.com to pick up some things I had back in the early 70s. Last performance I saw was Brahms Symphony, hall was about 2/3 full, music was actually very well done -sound was excellent. Made me want to go back for more, just like my stereo.

Tom, from your posts I assume you are in the Detroit area. John Renbourn's spring tour of the US is mostly over, but there's always next year. His website (john-renbourn.com) lists concerts in mid September in southern Ontario, in London and Guelph, in case you are interested. I saw him here in Chicago and also in Milwaukee where he and Jacqui McShee performed - a must see duet.

If you venture to Chicago occasionally please feel free to let me know, you're most welcome to come by for a listen...my system is described here.

Brian

I think you missed the spirit in which advice was given as I have no problem with your liking the Placette as it is a very good commercial unit. To make something that sounds better costs like Hell and normally isn't very commercial or convenient to use. I build gear for a living and the CTC preamp ate the passive Placette as respects focus, venue and dynamics. It wasn't close and think you can get a taste for it by reading Mike's earlier posts as we did this in Mike's system last Fall. If you like the passive Placette I imagine you would love the active one even better was my point.

Regarding Renbourn, he puts on a great show and prefers the small venues as spoke to him backstage for a while at the break. He was travelling with Jacqui McShee and together they were just awesome. Jacqui currently has a group called Jacqui McShee's Pentangle......This weekend I will hear Mighty Sam McClain at Bluesfest in Maryland, but expect the PA will be overpowering......

You make a good point in system matching as my amps (Parasound JC-1s) prefer an active stage before them to do their best as do most amps. My business partner called earlier tonight and I explained what was going on with this thread and he got a hoot out of it as he was pretty much at a loss to explain why the Blowtorch is so dynamic compared to most any other unit other than the topology is a complimentary differential folded cascode with no loop feedback. He used to use some 26 turn pots which had beaten up a unit he had designed in 1980, the Dennesen JC-80, and then the Blowtorch came in and destroyed the wire wound pots. Bottom line is there is more dynamic information with the CTC than there is with most anything out there. Curl made a joke and said it must be the atomic dynamicizer he designed into the circuit :-) Open loop bandwidth of 350K doesn't hurt either :-)

I don't know what the Blowtorch is (a passive of some sort?) and I also am not familiar with CTC. I recently listened to a CAT pre-amp, series III I think, and found it slightly veiled and resricted...pretty, though. This was with the CAT amps which I was told were the most recent iteration. I have to admit all the pre-amps I tried were very well built and a joy to use. I couldn't live without remote volume, though (CAT).

Last night I listened to Yo YO Ma's "Appalatian Journey" - micro and macro dynamics were stunning and this with my ProAc 2.5s which some say are not the best with wide dynamic swings. Couldn't tell by my experience. AND, all from a 9wt AirTight 300B amp...small room, though. Also listened to part of a Lloyd symphony which had the same wide swings (and micro inside of macro in both records which is thrilling).

I think the 300Bs with Tamura trannies does dynamics in a way that sounds most like the concert hall, at least in my experience. Anyway, off to Royal Oak this weekend for dinner and live, unamplified Flamenco guitar and singing.

CTC Blowtorch is a HIGH-END preamp made by CTC Builders: John Curl, Carl Thompson, and Bob Crump.It is an active preamp all the way, and is very highly regarded by its owners and by a couple of reviewers as being the best available.It has two chassis and weighs close to 100 lbs.
CTC Builders designed the Parasound Halo JC-1 monoblock amps for Parasound.