Ig316b, I live in Washington state which borders Canada but not sure how close we are. Yes I would love to give your Ultra a listen!
Who is using passive preamps and why?
Seldom has there been any discussions on passive preamps in the forums and although my experience with them has been limited I have found them so far to be very enjoyable and refreshingly different. They seem to fall into their own category, somewhere between solid state and tube. Finding a preamp that is satisfing has been difficult. Some active solid state preamps can be very good but they seem to inject grain to some degree in the upper registers and some tube preamps are not too far behind. So far I think they should at least be matched up with an amp that has sufficient gain which is often overlooked. Which passives are you using and with what amp? Why do you like them?
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Paul, After listening to the RM-10 MkII for the last few days I'm beginning to believe Roger is the genius he thinks he is ;) I haven't even tube swapped yet and I may not. I may try my hand at building one of his PITB's, but after I build my balanced passive though. I have the parts now, just need to put it together. I live near Jack Elliano of Electra Print and I'm using his transformers and schematic for the project. He's been kind enough to allow me access to his workshop to build it as well. Great guy, very knowledgeable and some excellent SET amp designs, with which he uses passive preamps. If all goes well the Lightspeed may be available soon. Of course if you ever just want to listen to it let me know. |
Pubul57, the engineers among us can give sound scientific reasons why resistors should outperform transformers just as they can explain why transistors should outperform tubes. However, there is a large contingency out here who swear by these supposed inferior devices. My personal experience with a PLacette confirms that a resistor based device can be excellent as well as the TVCs. One problem with the Placette's is their 9K impedance which poses a problem for many systems. If interested in a TVC check out Jeffrey Jackson's work. http://www.jeffreywjackson.com/Passive_Aggressive.htm . |
Jeffrey uses the Slagle autoformers in his designs. Another person who on his site specifically states what we have probably stated an number of times here and in other passive threads: http://www.jeffreywjackson.com/preamplifiers.htm |
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