Passive preamp vs. powered

Tony, I think you and I have gone through a similar path and respeonded to passives in the same way. Ultimately a very good tubed preamp just gives me the kind of sound I prefer. I was going back and forth with the Bent Tap-X Autoformer and decided to stick the Joule and Atma-sphere preamps. Now, the fact that something so much cheaper is in the running tells you a little bit about how much bang for the buck you get from passives. The rest does seem to be personal preference and that is hard to prejudge for another person.

Paul, we have gone down similar paths with passives and in the end our preferences have led us to different end points that we mutually respect. It helps that you and I have spent some time understanding each others systems and have listened to different systems together at a previous RMAF. I can certainly see understand why tube actives are your (and others) preference, although both your systems are passive friendly.

There have been times I've been tempted to try a VAC preamp to mate with my VAC amps. However, as I kept listening to my passive preamps, the thought just faded as I realized how pleased I was with the sound I already had.

Up to this point my comments have been directed at Passive Volume Controls. TVCs are another matter- if done properly they solve a lot of the issues that PVCs cannot address; I think they represent far greater bang for the buck than PVCs.

So it is harder to beat TVCs with a good line stage whereas beating a PVC is like shooting fish in a barrel. The problem you run into with TVCs is ringing due to improper loading of the transformer, and I find that there are still the losses that I always find transformers doing. Proper design can reduce these issues! Nevertheless they do not have the 'turn down the volume = turn down the bass and dynamics' problem that PVCs have.

Mr. Tennis, your remarks address mediocre equipment quite well but there is a league of equipment transcendent to such comments. 'Better' refers to greater resolution, wider bandwidth, natural dynamic punch, more natural tonality, improved soundstage... You can always ask me to clarify and I will be happy to do so. My use of the term 'better' in this thread does refer (but is not limited to) to the prior list of attributes.

OP, I guess the answer is it depends. It depend on the system context, and it depends on your preference for the type of sound that appeals to you. I will see that in a properly matched system (CD with 100Kohm input impedance on the amp and low capacitance (or short) ICs) it is pretty darn hard to beat the value of something like the Bent Transformer or Autoformer (I prefer)TVCs. I can tell you that it is very well designed, sounds great, and will give most if not all active linestages a mighty tough time justifying the cost difference, which doesn't mean you won't fine a wonderful tube preamp that does something for you that makes the price worth paying.

hi ralph:

i appreciate your specifics--denotation and connotation, of what better is. however, as audio is one of many aesthetic endeavors of life, opinion is the final arbiter.

if i say it is beter its is better for me, but perhaps not better for you. you can choose objective criteria. hwoever, within that arbitrary context which is not knowledge, someone else may create other objective criteria which disagrees with your assertions. thus, it is still a matter of opinion.