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Lightspeed Attenuator - Best Preamp Ever?

The question is a bit rhetorical. No preamp is the best ever, and much depends on system context. I am starting this thread beacuase there is a lot of info on this preamp in a Music First Audio Passive...thread, an Slagle AVC Modules...thread and wanted to be sure that information on this amazing product did not get lost in those threads.

I suspect that many folks may give this preamp a try at $450, direct from Australia, so I thought it would be good for current owners and future owners to have a place to describe their experience with this preamp.

It is a passive preamp that uses light LEDs, rather than mechanical contacts, to alter resistance and thereby attenuation of the source signal. It has been extremely hot in the DIY community, since the maker of this preamp provided gernerously provided information on how to make one. The trick is that while there are few parts, getting it done right, the matching of the parts is time consuming and tricky, and to boot, most of use would solder our fingers together if we tried. At $450, don't bother. It is cased in a small chassis that is fully shielded alloy, it gets it's RF sink earth via the interconnects. Vibration doesn't come into it as there is nothing to get vibrated as it's passive, even the active led's are immune as they are gas element, no filaments. The feet I attach are soft silicon/sorbethane compound anyway just in case.

This is not audio jewelry with bling, but solidly made and there is little room (if any) for audionervosa or tweaking.

So is this the best preamp ever? It might be if you have a single source (though you could use a switch box), your source is 2v or higher, your IC from pre-amp to amp is less than 2m to keep capaitance low, your amp is 5kohm input or higher (most any tube amp), and your amp is relatively sensitive (1v input sensitivity or lower v would be just right). In other words, within a passive friendly system (you do have to give this some thought), this is the finest passive preamp I have ever heard, and I have has many ranging form resistor-based to TVCs and AVCs.

In my system, with my equipment, I think it is the best I have heard passive or active, but I lean towards prefering preamp neutrality and transparency, without loosing musicality, dynamics, or the handling of low bass and highs.

If you own one, what are your impressions versus anything you have heard?

Is it the best ever? I suspect for some it may be, and to say that for a $450 product makes it stupidgood.
pubul57
dgarretson
2,613 posts
 
"Amplifying the low-level stuff, stuff that might not get through (stage depth & other nuances) is important and not insignificant as we know. Is it possible a great active can get more of this information by way of design then a passive?"

When I was building a replacement analog stage for my Sony CDP, I compared an entirely passive solution that used silver step-up transformers directly from the voltage DAC to output, to the same transformers with the addition of an active battery-powered buffer. In each case the CDP output was connected to an Atma-Sphere MP-1 tube line stage. Going into that experiment I expected to hear sonic trade-offs, with the passive winning on treble resolution & overall sonic purity, and the active winning on dynamics and LF control. In actuality the hybrid buffered approach won on every point. As a result I opine that if the impedance match is anything less than perfect(and who really knows for certain what is perfect?), a passive would benefit by being equipped with an active buffer on an A/B switch. There are several simple & inexpensive buffer designs(including one contributed to the Lightspeed DIY thread by Nelson Pass)that will do justice to a top-quality passive. In this scenario the comparison of LSA to other preamps becomes more of a contest between volume controls-- which is a critical and oft-neglected determinant of a preamp's performance.
agear
1,362 posts
 
As George just stated, the Bolero test is a level test only, not a tool for system analysis. Grannyring got people excited with his description of the 2D sound staging of the LSA. What followed was philosophical posturing, semantics, and the infamous Bolero test...all attempts to rationalize his findings. His findings are his findings only, not gospel as he has already said.

Pubul57, I will await winter and your comparison of the LSA and Atma gear since you are straddling two worlds and are thus somewhat double minded. That report will have the same value (or close to) as my wife's description. The "Heather test."

Larkston_zinazpic, you are brilliant. You said something without saying anything.
pubul57 OP
3,712 posts
 
As George said June 14th, "The best sound you will get is to put your (CD DAC or Phono) directly into your power amps with a VERY quite CD track first, this is the most perfect "true to the source" sound you will get, and only the Lightspeed Attenuator is closest pre or passive to mimicking that sound." This description suggest the direct connection, where Bolero is simply used to keep from blowing out your speakers, and it appears to be George's view the standard for the most accurate transmission of the source signal to an amp (not a level test) - and in this case there is no impedance mismatch; I agree with Dgarretson that when there is and impedance mismatch, a buffered passive (or active) will likely perform better - As George has susggested and Arthur Salvatore and Roger Modjeski of Music Reference both said - but with good impedance matches the buffer option will not be as pure/good as truly passive. I do wish I had a Pass B1 to test in the system.

I don't think I will run the LSA with the Atma-amps no matter the season for they are designed to run with balanced connections, and they are not very sensitive - some gain in the preamp is needed. The LSA has made my Music Reference amps sound their best (the RM9 SE I preferred to my CAT JL2), but I still prefer the Atma amp cuz I don't think you can beat OTLs if your speakers work well with them - mine do.

Dream preamp - active tube line stage with low output impedance and variable gain settings, switchable to unity gain tube buffered output, or purely resistor passive - the LSA as volume control of course. Hmmm. I bet Modjeski could build one....
clio09
3,370 posts
 
Interesting comment on the buffered approach Dave. I believe when John Chapman re-introduced the Tap-X with the Slagle autoformers the remote allowed you to choose from buffered or unbuffered (only on the multi-input models though). In his testing he said he couldn't distinguish a difference between the two, but his goal was obviously to allow a user to address impedance mismatches. The Truth preamp I wrote about in another thread uses photo cells and a buffered output. Output impedance is extremely low, something like 2 ohms. It supposedly can drive cables up to 30 ft. in length. It works nicely with my Atma-Sphere S-30, but as Pubul57 mentioned if you don't need the buffer, and my other amps don't, why add anything to the mix.

In this scenario the comparison of LSA to other preamps becomes more of a contest between volume controls-- which is a critical and oft-neglected determinant of a preamp's performance.

I agree we often forget the impact of the volume control in preamp designs. The concept of removing the volume control from the equation was what got me interested in the LSA to begin with. The LSA doesn't need a high quality volume control since the design eliminates the impact on its performance.
dgarretson
2,613 posts
 
Clio09, Of course in LSA the series/shunt photoresistor IS the volume control. The knob that you twist merely controls the control. I'm suggesting that by adding a companion active buffer, the LDR control could be directly compared to a conventional volume control(e.g. potentiometer, stepped attenuator, etc.) independent of systems matching. Chances are good that an LSA buffered in this manner would come out ahead of most active preamps. And by switching off the buffer function you would know immediately whether the problem is a mismatch.
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