The best passive preamp


How good is one of the best passive preamp, how the transistor based bent audio or the placette or the swiss made Audio Consultant, or audio teknè, in comparision with the very best active line stage? beside the costs, is a pure quality question, for me.
alexismaster
Has anyone heard the First Sound Passive Preamp and compared with any of the TVCs on the market since the last post here. Quite a while, due to many threads on passives, but this seemed as good a place to ask as any other.
I have heard it. It is nothing special sound wise in terms of comparisons to other resistive passives. Better build and quality of parts though IMO versus other resistive and even most magnetic passives. Especially if you can find one with the Shallco attenuators. I guess at the used prices they have been selling for lately one could do a lot worse.

At the time I did comparisons with the First Sound I was still convinced my TVC was better. It would be interesting to compare one to my autoformer and LSA.