Passive Pre - No Regrets?

Tbg, just curious, were any of the passives a TVC design. If so could you mention which one. My understanding is that TVCs are not prone to the impedance mismatching issues that the resistor-based passives are prone to. Thanks

Unfortunately this is not the case. You listened to tapes that were slowly deteriorating over time played on a tape deck that added it's own colorations played through speakers or headphones that also added colorations.

This is not exactly true- the tapes were new, the tape machine was rebuilt and very stable and calibrated. This is the sort of thing that you apparently have to do in order to understand how powerful it is as a reference! I've seen audiophiles turn ghost white after being fooled by the direct microphone feed (startled at how *real* it sounds- far more so than any stereo using a recording can!).

The value of working with master tapes is that you are there at the recording session so you *know* what the music is supposed to sound like.

Well Tbg, I have the dynamics of active with my passive, carefull matching and testing was required but now I got transparency of passive and the dynamics of active...

TVC performance is still related to impedance matching. I had audiozone TVC passive which worked great with tube amps but was lifeless with pass lab amp ( inped 10K). You can look up the specs on S& B transformer in the desired attenuattion and see if it could work for you.

I agree about the careful system matching required with any passive, including a TVC. But when it all comes together, the dynamics, timing, bass extension, transparency...etc.... is all there in spades with a TVC. Mine has beaten some high dollar active preamps in my system and I have no desire to go back. However, with that said, my preamp does not sound good in all systems. If the matching amp doesn't have enough voltage gain, then all bets are off. As always, YMMV.

Oz