Passive Pre - No Regrets?

Pubul57,

Please give us your opinion of the Placette vs. the Cat after you've had time to evaluate and compare.

Tbg, I will definitely not give up on the CAT that fast. On the amplifier side, I keep bringing in challengers to the JL2 and while I like trying new stuff, I find that the JL2 is clearly superior to any othe amp I've heard (all these other amps (ARC, Pass, Quicksilver) I've tried sound great to me in their own right, till I go back to the CAT as a reference point). I have found the SL1 pretty hard to beat as well, I've tried Lamm LL2, Joule 150, and ARC Ref 2. Of course, these are all "good", top flight preamplfiers, but the CAT equipment just seems hard to beat for my taste and matching equipment. I would love to find that a $1,000 passive pre can beat the CAT over the long run - I'm certainly open to it. I'll report back on my "test" when I have 2-3 weeks with the Placette. Thank you all for you help.

One of the more important functions of a line section is control of the interconnect. That is why you see so many posts on this thread preferring the (allegedly) more colored sound of various preamps over passives. Passives cannot control interconnects, so their sound changes (coloration) depending on the setting of the volume control.

Once you've heard what this is about its hard to keep using passives. They just don't work, unless the volume control is located at the input of the amp itself. This can be really inconvenient if you have monoblocks!

In an ideal world, the interconnect is always neutral as the line section completely controls it. In the real world, this is more closely achieved by balanced line stage operation. But any line section that has a low enough output impedance will drive a single-ended cable quite well- this is how 50 ohm cable for video can work.

I'd think twice about selling off a good Line section in favor of a passive! If you really do like it better, it suggests to me that there is a bad synergy elsewhere in the system that the passive is compensating.

Good Luck!

Thank you Atmasphere. I think this will prove to an interesting experiment for me. Of course if I prefer the Placette>CAT to the CAT>CAT I imagine (hope) that it will not be due to bad synergy. Does your view suggest that an integrated amplifier approach with a passive preamplfier section might by interesting. If you get the advantage of the quietness and transparency (theoretical advantage of straight wire) of a passive with and internal, interconnect-free connection to the amplfier section, with perfect designed impedance matches - would that work in theory, or is it a matter of tradeoffs at that point?

Pubul57

The passive does not need to be better than the active...it only needs to be "as good", ($$$) saved.

Of course, only (you and your ear) will give you that answer.

Dave