Parasound's Hint 6's new volume control provides huge sonic advances?
NP George. Still to this day I think your pre’s are the best sounding pre for that kind of $ and I love the idea of no bs straight signal idea. It worked very well with my Classe CA150, my Classe CA250 and parasound z dac. The Lightspeed just got out of the way and I had no issues what so ever with dynamics or lack of meat on the bones, per se. |
I'd like to offer a different take on the volume mechanism. I am a huge fan of Ayre Acoustics. They have developed the VTG - Variable Gain Transdonductance Volume Control for their preamps. No resistors in the signal path. Silver to silver self cleaning contacts. Very high tech. I do own the Ayre C-X7eMP and the K-5xeMP and love them! However I have a local Ayre dealer in Cincinnati, OH. and have listened to much of Ayre's equipment over the years. Ayre has begun doing zoom videos with three their top technicians where they have a cold beer and discuss different aspects of their gear. I've attached a link to the newest on their top line volume controls. https://youtu.be/HR414rhDmQM N |
Reading an Ayre VGT circuit description here https://www.soundstageultra.com/index.php/equipment-menu/90-ayre-acoustics-kx-r-preamplifier-and-mx-r-mono-amplifiers in the paragraph that begins "First, in a traditional preamplifier, " it sounds like they have an input buffer before a gain stage that follows the level control. YAWN. If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullsh!t. |
