Does remote control degrade the sound of tube preamps?
Some preamp manufactures (e.g. CAT) don’t put remote controls in their preamps due to the supposed sound degradation. This could also be just an excuse. Do you think the sound quality is degraded with a remote? I am talking about an audible effect.
+1 @larryi |
CJ has been using relay / resistive ladder volume since the CT 6 maybe earlier. It is proven and in my opinion better than electronic volume controls like the ones CJ used when they built McCormack preamps. Those were a Burr Brown volume chip, I hated the volume control on my RLD 1 , in fact that was the shortest duration I have owned a preamp. I replaced it with a CJ Classic 2SE My Zesto pre uses a motor that moves an analog volume pot. The IR circuitry has no effect on performance. I much prefer analog rotary volume knobs |
Quality wise, there are not that many extreme quality 'motorized volume pots' out there. Recall the elaborate mechanism put in place by Charles & crew at Ayre, for their 'peak quality' remote control preamp. It's not just isolation and separation of the motorization aspects from the rest of the circuitry in order to avoid any electrical or electromagnetic interference from said motorized circuitry. it's the availability of high or peak quality remote control volume designs. They get very rare and in limited numbers, and thus very expensive, at the top of it all. some go for relays and resistive ladders/arrays. Depending on the relays in use, this can be very very good sounding. But it can also be distinctly mediocre. Or even below the quality norm set for a $20 Alps plastic pot, the near ubiquitous blue version. I believe that DACT makes a few remote versions of their discrete ladder designs. Which might be the most common peak quality oriented unit available right now, without going totally off the deep end. Such a pot, depending on the applied version (customized, etc) might add $600 to an easy $1k, or more, to the final retail price of a given item. |
