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Need passive aggressive advice

Hello
To scratch an itch of mine I purchased a preowned Placette passive device and now I'm hooked!
Passives are very system dependent as we all know but I'm stoked on what its doing, or should I say, not doing in my Horn/300B system,
Since I can't leave well enough alone, I'm looking at more "modern" passive designs and have narrowed it down to three of them.
1) latest from Tortuga
2) " The Truth" from the Horn Shoppe
3) Axiom with Walker mods
All with remote. A MUST for me.
I'm assuming that they will all surpass the vishay placette in transparency. ASSUMING.

Appreciate any and all suggestions/comments/alternatives.

Thanks for your time

Emil




emil
reubent
6,952 posts
 
Emil,

I had a Placette Passive and it was VERY GOOD. I would not bet that any other passive is going to be any better. One of my best friends also has the Placette Passive in his system, which is a very highly resolving system. It sounds awesome!

If it were me (and its not), I would only buy a different passive that had a return policy, or was purchased used for a "can't lose" price so the unit could be re-sold if it did not out-perform the Placette.

I've since moved on from the Placette, but only because I wanted to consolidate to an integrated amp and simplify my setup.
kalali's avatar
kalali
1,977 posts
 
I looked it up out of curiosity but don't see anew specs except the physical dimensions. What are the specs for the input and output impedance?
auxinput
2,920 posts
 

Honestly, I don't think you will do better than the Placette for a standard passive.  It appears to use disrete Vishay S-102 resistors, so it is going to perform pretty much like every other stepped attenuator.  I would say that you could look at passives with a transformer if you wanted something a little different and "colored":

http://remusic.it/EN/Shootout-Test-Eleven-Passive-Preamps-with-Transformers-8e1d2000

By the way, it appears that The Truth preamp is an active device, so it is not really a true "passive".

emil OP
205 posts
 
Thanks, guys
 Seems like the Placette with its Vishays can still holds its own today.

I leaning towards giving the Tortuga a try
https://www.tortugaaudio.com/product/ldr3-v25-passive-preamp/
Its uses what they call  Light Dependent photoResistors ( LDRs) which seems to seperate it from the others.
It also has 3 inputs and 2 outputs as compared to one of each on my Placette.
$1k with 30 day return policy
reubent
6,952 posts
 
@emil - If you try the Tortuga and do not prefer it over your Placette, you can get a Placette passive with multiple inputs and outputs. Mine was a 4-input/1-output version. My buddie's Placette is a 3-input/2-output version.

Good Luck! I hope you find everything you are looking for....
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