I prefer the sound of an active preamp because it sounds like music.Rrog, once again a dogmatic statement that fails to take into account all factors. If you want to say you've never heard a passive that sounds like music then it appears that would be true, but I guarantee you they do in the right system as many have stated in this thread. Are you saying you have golden ears and all of us, and there are many thousands, who prefer passives in their systems don't hear well?
Pubul, attenuate means to reduce or weaken so any volume control whether resistive or inductive is an attenuator. For some reason you usually see that term with stepped resistor controls and not with TVCs but they are both attenuators.
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