Unity gain with tube buffer?

Ralph, assuming enough gain (I don't seem to need any based on my previous experience with passives)is there a reason that an active stage with gain would sound better? It seems to me that less is more if it is enough.

I think the reference to Promitheus was for the Apollo preamp, but that uses the TVC with a gain stage (6 or 12db) which is not what you are looking for. I'm sure Nicholas could custom build what you wanted but that might be a bit risky.

It's possible that Jeffrey Jackson at Experience Music could help you. He has a lot of experience with the Intact Audio autoformers and incorporates them into his active preamp designs. Jeff is a big fan of passive linestages and if I were to have something along the lines of what you're looking for custom built for me he'd be near the top of my list.

Hello Pubu57

The simplest thing is to ask Nicolas at Promitheus directly. Of course they use TVC - and thus why their volume control is so good (at least for money there is no equal)!!!!! Gain of 6 dB will not kill you since my translation of what you asked - "can I have a tube preamp without gain stage" and answer is yes, you can.

On other hand, if Atmasphere will build one - this probobly will be the best around

All The Best
Rafael

If Ralph builds one I will definitely be interested, especially since one of my amps is a pair of Atma-spheres and I assume it will have balanced connections. Clio9, I also spoke with Roger Modjeski who said he is looking into building just such an amp as well, and wood matched with my RM9SE -- so I may very well end up with an Atma and Music Reference version of these "tube buffer" amps. The Pass B1 Buffer pre we saw at RMAF was pretty impressive with the F5 amp. As an aside (the more I hear about your Kinesis speakers the more interested I am, they souned fantastic with the Atma-speheres at the show)

Talk to Ralph about the Audio Kinesis speakers. He has some interesting things to say about them. My Jazz Modules should be here in the next couple of days. Looking forward to getting rid of speaker stands.

I read up a bit more on the B1. Seems pretty interesting and makes me wonder why more manufacturers haven't done this.