Curl or Pass

And your response here makes you the perfect example.

That’s right, I didn’t start this, I was being responsive to your bs abuse you tried to put on me and my product, even though it wasn’t mentioned originally by me.


dougthebiker : I was steering you to a very very good Phono stage in the Tom Evans range, that have so much gain there is no need for an active pre, a passive will do, and the money saved on not buying an active pre can maybe put toward Tom Evans flagship phono stage.

Nelson Pass:

“We’ve got lots of gain in our electronics. More source gain than some of us need or want. At least 10 db more.

Think of it this way: If you are running your volume control down around 9 o’clock, you are actually throwing away source signal level so that a subsequent active preamp gain stage can make it back up."

With added noise and distortions.

Nelson Pass:

"Routinely DIYers opt to make themselves a “passive preamp” - just an input selector and a volume control.

What could be better? Hardly any noise or distortion added by these simple passive parts. No feedback, no worrying about what type of capacitors – just musical perfection.

And yet there are guys out there who don’t care for the result. “It sucks the life out of the music”, is a commonly heard refrain (really - I’m being serious here!). Maybe they are reacting psychologically to the need to turn the volume control up compared to an active preamp.”

Cheers George

George,

Thanks for the responsive post. 

Best Regards

@clifffff   So true. I hate when someone chimes in with a product completely unrelated to the OP's original question. Yes, sometimes there's a serendipitous discovery (e.g. I never would have fallen in love with my Spatials had someone not recommended them as a Product Z suggestion), but still - just stay in your lane.

Anyhow, there are several wonderful options alongside the Parasound and Pass. As to the latter two, you can't go wrong with either. It all depends on how much flexibility you want. Yet I went from a highly-rated, well-reviewed, uber-flexible phono pre to a "here's what you get" phono pre and the difference with the latter was phenomenal no matter what cartridge and combo I threw at it.