Are passive preamps better?

Yeah. Cool. And I don't know how much of the hobby is having a good system and how much is having good knowledge. That's part of the fun, too. Lynne

Hi Arnettpartners, When doing a passive preamp the type and quality of the attenuators are critical, You may want to check out Goldpoint at http://www.goldpt.com/ for some info and their products. Even if you dont go for a passive preamp it is good to change all potentiometers in any of your equipment to stepped attenuator types for much improved channel balance and clarity.
Bob

OK, Bob. Thanks. Last night I searched Placette under discussion forums. One member said that a passive preamp needs 40 k ohms input impedence from amp. That might help explain why some people are happy and some are not with passive preamps and goes to Eldhartford's rremarks on many amps going into clipping. So I might not be going passive but I will check out the attenuators. Lynne

1. The Placette attentuators (on both the RVC and Active) are arguably the finest ever made.

2. THe 40 kohm spec might (not sure about that) be true for the Placette RVC, not the "Active" - the active will drive (in terms of impedance matching) any amp you can find.

OK. Are there likely to be differences in passives? There's a Goldpount for sale. Lynne