Poll - Active vs. Passive preamp

John does indicate the new Bent TAP has buffered input settings, but one should rarely find them to sound better than the non-buffered setting since most sources used today will have enough output voltage to drive the passive.

I believe the new Pass B1 has buffered outputs and addresses what I think is a more important issue with the ability of the passive to drive the amp, primarily due to component and/or cable impedance mismatching. It's my belief that any lack of bass or drive from a passive is primarily due to these issues. If a buffered output solves this then perhaps we're on to something. IIRC Burson makes a buffer stage that has been very well received, but unlike the Pass I do not beileve it offers a volume control.

As to whether a tube buffer or solid state buffer works best, I really can't venture to say since I've tried neither. I'm also not aware of a tube buffer with a volume control.

I think an early version of the Music Fidelity had tube buffer with volume control. This is something Roger Modjeski is looking into, and it sounds like Ralph K. is as well - should be interesting as the theory makes sense. I'll say the active Placette which is essentially a volume control with a very robust buffer stage sounded much better to me than the "nude" RVC. What I don't understand is the technical difference between using a buffer for impedance matching and the use of a transformer/autoformer.

No loss of bass or dynamics here with only a stepped attenuator as a pre. The only thing I lost was coloration.

Doesn't seem to be a problem if impedances, output voltages, amp sensitivity, and cable capacitance are right. But they do have to be right and often are not, so gain and buffering usually necessary - I would like do without the complexity of gain, but think buffering will help. Though I hear you, Roger Modjeski has been using an attentuator (Poit-in-a-Box) with his amps for the past 15 years or so.

If your source has enough potential voltage output to drive your amp to it's max wattage: You will lose nothing but coloration. If that's the case: You need nothing but attenuation. That's providing we are discussing a very transparent passive, like the Placette. Source material varies widely though, with regards to recording level. When I had my Placette Linestage, there were some recordings that just did not give me the SPLs that I crave(live levels- Jazz/Blues). Then too: There are many out there that just enjoy the colorations that most pre-amps add to the signal.