Passive preamp to a power amp?

The Saga has more inputs and two outputs. They mention you can use the two inputs on the Sys as outputs (connect in reverse) and leave the volume all the way up. I have a Sys and am going to pick up a Saga as the extra inputs and output would be helpful plus I may like playing around with the tube stage a bit. Hopefully I can find a black one on the used market.

From Schiit:

The saga is much more transparent and causes less potential impedance match issues and includes a remote. sys is really more of a switcher box, while saga is a proper preamp with a resistor stepped attenuator volume control while sys has a simple potentiometer. Saga also has multiple inputs.

The Schiit Freya is also relatively inexpensive and can be switched between 3 modes, with the passive and FET being nearly identical and the tube stage being more fun (and higher gain), and the attenuator has 128 clicking little steps. It's more of a "grown up" balanced preamp even for those who are not grown up and seem unbalanced. 

stuff_jones
I was reading reviews on the Schiit Saga and people were having a hard time differentiating between active and passive mode. In that case, why not just get the Schiit Sys passive and save 300 dollars?

There is quite a difference between the two in passive mode. The Saga and Freya have a far better quality relay switched volume control, with better contact points between wiper (relay contacts) and resistive component in this case fixed resistors.
Where the Sys even though it’s very good for the money, has inferior wiper contact and resistive track component called a potentiometer, which most active preamps use.

When matched to source/amp I believe passives have superior transparency and dynamics to any active preamp, they have far less but still have sonic differences between them though, as I just pointed out above being what what passive system was used E.G:

1: Potentiometers like the Sys (wiper contacts in the signal path)
2: Switched relay/resistor like the Saga and Freya (relay contacts in the signal path)
3: Transformer volume control (TVC) (rotary switch contacts in the signal path)
4: My Lightspeed Attenuator passive pre (no contacts in the signal path)

To me nothing sound as transparent and dynamic as going source direct to poweramp, using the source’s digital domain volume control if it has one. One caveat though, if a digital domain volume control is used below 75% you run the risk of "bit stripping" (resolution reduction)

BTW: Your Shiit Vidar is a little low input impedance at 22kohm for 10kohm passives, but if your Bluesound Node 2i is less than say <200ohms output impedance all should be fine.  


Cheers George

@georgehifi

To me nothing sound as transparent and dynamic as going source direct to poweramp, using the source’s digital domain volume control if it has one.

An interesting twist to the last stage of assembling my system. Paul from PS Audio talks about this too and agrees with you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdytsbrzjCA

Why then does anyone use a preamp?

One caveat though, if a digital domain volume control is used below 75% you run the risk of "bit stripping" (resolution reduction)

How then does one control the volume at lower levels?

This is all new information to me and means may I should pool my pre-amp + dac budget and get a nicer dac with a volume control (If I’m understanding right).

Thanks for the eye opening post!