Is preamp remote volume a deal breaker for you?

Dracule1,
Your analogy does`nt apply. As a daily driver the Lexus would in fact be the "better performer". It we move to the race track the race car has the better performance.

I honestly don`t know if a well designed remote degrades sound at the very highest level of performance or not. It`s interesting that many of the ultra level; cost no object preamps avoid the remote control.

As in all things regarding audio, it ultimately becomes a matter of personal choice and compromise.

I would therefore expect that in the case of a short cable, say a few feet long, and if the cable is reasonably well designed and is driven from a low impedance balanced output, that those effects would be insignificant both with and without the termination.

The cable-related artifact that a termination resistor improves are its transmission-line effects, which I feel are certainly insignificant at the lengths used in a home interconnect . . . any significant reactances (overwhelmingly capacitance) can be negated simply by a low source impedance. However, there are four ways I can see in which the application of a 600 ohm terminating resistor can make an audible difference:
- Damping the ringing of a line-output transformer (these being very rare in consumer equipment, and don't categorically require damping resistors)
- Improving the noise rejection with line inputs, outputs, or cables that have somewhat mismatched impedances (increasing the common-mode impedance has the same effect)
- altering the bass response of a capacitively-coupled output stage
- increasing the distortion of an active balanced output stage (typically equivalent to an unbalanced output driving a 300 ohm load)

It has always seemed to me that the second two situations are far more likely to occur than the first two.

Thanks, Kirk. Good points, of course. Re the two adverse situations you indicated as being most likely to occur when a 600 ohm load is used, those reading this should note Ralph's (Atmasphere's) reference to the need to be able to drive 600 ohms "without degradation." In other threads he has made clear that "without degradation" includes having insignificant effects on frequency response and distortion, a condition which will not be met by many (and I suspect most) preamps and source components.

Tim (Timlub), thanks for your kind comments.

Best regards,
-- Al

Charles1dad, I thought it was a good analogy because performance in car parlance has do with horse power, handling, top speed/acceleration which are analogous to power output, dynamics, and frequency extension in audiophile terms. Soft pillowy quiet ride and leather interior etc of Lexus sedan are all conveniences like a remote. We, at least me, listen to music almost every day so the daily driver analogy applies. But we are digressing from the original point of my thread.

Regasrding XLRs: I've used balanced cables in pro audio for decades...I've found that better xlr cables really do sound better (surprise), and recently bought a pair of Mogami/Neutrik "Gold" ICs to connect my Kavent balanced preamp to my Forte' Model 55 amp, replacing some no name brand of ICs that came with the preamp...man...the Mogamis SUCKED with tizzy, harsh treble, weird harmonic energy...bleah...sounded so bad I couldn't tolerate an interminable break-in period and replaced them A'quest Diamondbacks that sounded great immediately (and even better after some break-in). This was surprising in that I've never had such a dramatic case of cable failure.