PASSIVE Preamp and LIFELESSNESS?

Long ago, I made an experiment by connecting my tuner to my poweramp,while using a potentiometer only. This set-up could be regarded as I was using a primitive passive preamp. My conclusion at that time was; the music sounded clearer, more direct, but on the negative side also a slight bit more lean. Well, I have not thought much about passive preamps since then, but now I´m also in the process of upgrading my system, (or more to the truth;I havn´t had a system for four long years, and the last year,I have been building my High-end loudspeakers.) Having considering several pre-/poweramp alternatives(most of them are not so easy to get to listen to), I and my wife auditioned a Norwegian combination called Dynamic Precision,consisting of a passive pre(DPC 7.3) and a poweramp(DPA 6.4). Sound quality was surely amazing, especially given the rudimentary conditions.Our listening took place in a small sleepingroom,the one speaker was placed on a desk, the other on a piano-chair. Some month earlier, me and my wife had listen to a real expencive system,e.g. loudspeakers were Audio Artistry´s Beethoven,but that was not nearly as fun as listen to the Norwegian combination, which used much cheaper loudspeakers. Could any conclusion be made? I´can only write my opinions. If You are lucky, You can create a system where synergy is predominant.It´s not easy to say that active preamplifiers are always best, or worst.You can´t even say that a passive pre always needs short interconnections. Dynamic Precision states that cables up to 10m could be used in conjuntion to the balanced inputs of the company´s poweramplifiers,with minimal loss only. The purpose of real hi-fi can be said to be, to create an illusion of "real" or live music. But different people seem to be differently sensitive to the shortcomings in sound-systems. I will probably buy the Norwegian pre/poweamp combination (costs about $ 5700),that decision is based of the "live" feeling and feeling of joy, that turned up, when listening. There are other passive preamplifier out there, e.g.Placette which have good reports, but if it´s the right thing for You and Your system, I can´t tell! Regards Håkan Ståhl sweden

Since I got way more clarity and the signal was kept very pure my passive had much much more bass and dynamics and sounds louder than my powered classe pre amp sounded. If your going to go with passive you need to have a good one. I recommend what I have, the reference line preeminence 1 series 2. It uses silver wire throughout. It's $1500 but I got mine for $400 used. Don't forget to put a ground wire on it either......Also matching gear is very important. My audio alchemy DAC and theta DAC sound very powerfull with my passive but I tried an EAD dac and I had to turn up the volume much louder and it still didn't have the pushing power of the other two. That's because the output volts was to low. It's like 2 volts but the manual shows you how to up that to 4 by clipping some circiuts, however it was on loan so I couldn't do that. And another reason some people wouldn't like passive is because they would be used to the colored sound of there active preamp which may gloss over flaws in the rest of there system. Passive lets you hear exacly what's going on with your stuff. So if something doesn't sound right then chances are it's something else in your system that needs to be changed out. Anyway you have to find a good combo so don't give up keep trying the improvments are well beyond worth the effort.

Hi Kacz. How can we find out any imformation about Reference Line Preeminence. Web Site, Dealers? Is their such a thing as a balanced passive? Thanks for your comments.

If a passive sounds worse in your system, IMHO that's a clue that something else is wrong. With a decent source output stage (not that every CD player, for example, has one), your idea that no preamp is the idea is quite sound. I've used a passive very successfully with a Pass Aleph 3 amp, input impedance an unfriendly 23K ohms, and I'm now driving 10' interconnects with a passive. In each case, my source output stage was good--that's absolutely all it takes. BUT if you're a DIY type at all, DON'T buy a commercial passive unless money is nothing to you. It's SO EASY to make one that's better than almost anything around. Contact me for ideas, websites, and so on, if you're interested.

I recently bought an adcom GFP-750 for $750 on the Gon !It was the best $750 I've spent on my system I would highly recomend it and by the way I agree Vr4's are great speakers! goodluck!