Passive Pre - No Regrets?

"People like Guy Placette and Emmanuel Go (who originally offered a passive design that is no longer avalailable) designed and built active preamps for a reason. "

Which is???

I think Pubul57 puts it very nicely, "passives are a cult item" if you are able, and knowledgeable enough, and have the right system for it, it is "magic" : if one of the above is missing, it wont work: Then you can get the active.

If you swap equipment a lot you will need the active also.

But lets ask them!

Another issue which I dont think is fair to apply it but it is real: a Passive Preamp is pretty cheap and there is really no way of making it very expensive (unless you use silver transformers I guess); but an Active Preamp can be sold for a lot of money, even without silver transformers!

FWIW, the issue you face with TVCs is hysteresis loss, which introduces low level distortion whenever the signal changes polarity (IOW- loss of low level detail). Additionally there will be changes in bandwidth depending on the tap selected. Careful design can minimize the latter but there is nothing to be done for the former- its a fact of life for all audio signal transformers except those in the current path of a single-ended device.

Since a single-ended device (tube or transistor) biases the core of the transformer, the zero crossing of the signal occurs at 1/2 the total saturation of the transformer- in effect there is zero hysteresis loss.

So- if you wanted to use a TVC this would be one way of doing that for those of you who are DIYers- combining the technologies.

For those following this thread, I came to similar conclusions as Pubul57.

In my system, Placette Linestage (1500$) which I have borrowed from a friend totally DESTROYED my BAT 51SE. Much more transparent, VASTLY better microdynamics with all the natural color of music perserwed. My jaw literally hit the floor.
I tried long and hard to fine just ONE thing that the 51SE does better than the Placette, and I couldn't. Two weeks have passed and I'm still in awe. So much in fact, that I have ordered Placette RVC (1 input version) for myself.

I think the controversy about passive line stages suggests that people listen for different things and that systems vary greatly. Much of the verbal discussion of sound is much like a debate about whether red or blue are the best color.

Tbg, I think your opinion is very valid. I have a TVC and a battery powered active linestage. I think both have positives and negatives, although in my experience the TVC has less negatives. In fact, I have used both in the system at the same time with great results (DAC>TVC>Active>amp). I feel my TVC is truer to the sound, but my active is livelier. Just mt two cents worth.