Best Sounding Passive Preamp

I assume that your source has enough output to directly drive your amplifier. If your source has the ability to control it's output level why not scrap the passive preamp and go directly to the power amp. You will eliminate any unwanted coloration or noise and certainly save yourself a few dollars. After all, a passive preamp is only an attenuator.

If your looking for a passive, you should really go to Rick Schulzes site tweakaudio.com his EVS passives are the best out there and very reasonable. Back in the day I had one in my system and it was great. In the end I had to go with tubes but I had one for 6 years in my system. Stereophile had them as Class A (for what thats worth). Best-Gary

You should look at Placette. Not as inexpensive as these others, perhaps, but state-of-the-art sonics. Plus, in-home 30 day trial.

The best sounding with the purest signal path is the Axiom made by Luminous Audio. www.luminousaudio.com they are $160.00 with shipping in the usa. It uses caddock resister and is shunted to ground so the actual audio signal does not go through the potentiometer. The worst passive ive owned is the Creek and the adcom. They are horrible. Good luck

Look for an EVS(Electronic Visionary Systems)passive produced by Rick Schultz some years back. It retailed for around $450 new and it's about as clean and transparent as you're going to get.

I owned it, a couple Reference Line models, and an old McCormack or was it Mod Squad back then? At any rate the EVS used a pair of stepped attenuators for gain and balance and had a "straight thru" mode where the only thing in the signal path was a couple RCA's coming and going, a very short piece of wire and one or two resistors. Can't get much simpler than that. It was by far the best sounding passive I've heard.