|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
205.197.242.143
In Reply to: RE: Passives posted by jrdoe on May 03, 2016 at 18:16:37
Memories into a journey...
Going back some fifteen years ago with limited insights into this preoccupation of ours being fueled along by my never-ending inquisitiveness, I set my sights on some gear to get closer to the musical performances.
My first purchase was a fairly efficient pair of powered Mirage OM6s and Transparent bi-cables, then I added a Plinius sa100mk3 amplifier largely due to its class a power,flexibility and great looks.
Then, onto the next I wanted something with tubes, so it came down to my source or preamp and at the time the Kora Hermes tubed dac was a steal.
The obvious choice for a preamp would be Plinius to maintain house sound.but as things stand my dealer just so happened to have a Adcom gfp 750 clean demo for 600 bucks. Done deal, now say what you will about those of you and your experiences with this class a featured design but I have had nothing but great results in my system and still have it today.
As always system matching or synergy is paramount and that being said it ran really hot with limited use of the volume in active mode, yet it possesed some of the best bass Ive heard to date, I ended up with Rothwell attenuators in active mode which allowed full use of the volume via remote controll, albeit the Rothwells were not the most transparent.
Anyhow ; I swung the Adcom into passive mode hooked up some very short siltech sq 110 interconnects from the Kora hermes to the Adcoms inputs out to the Plinius in class a mode, while the Kora has a 2volt and 5volt switch I switched it to 5volt for more drive.
Perhaps both the Plinis amplifier and Adcom preamplifier both being "direct coupled" and in ballance mode "differential" in design allowed for the beautiful music I was getting or perhaps the input and output impedances were complimenting each other all I know is it was a very beautifully warm dynamic, yet detailed sound with vocals that were in the room.
Perhaps the mosfets in the adcom along with the tubes in the dac conveyed the music who really knows. My point is it "worked"for me in this circuit.
There's many good suggestions from some very knowledgeable inmates like the Placette line or the luminous audio line from both ends of the financial spectrum, terrific inmates here with vast experiances and helpful experiances.Im pleased they're sharing with us parts of their journey.
Best wishes and good luck in yours.
Regards,
/// Tim W. ///
Follow Ups:
Great post. Thanks for the good wishes and for sharing. I'm concerned for my wallet with this journey I'm on, but must say I'm enjoying it immensely.
Find and Buy a 10k pot (stepped attenuator or not.. don't spend large as there is NO need to.. salesmens' babbles aside).
Run Short interconnects to your 'new' pot... from Source And to Amp. Then LISTEN,
If it works... as in your existing gear is impedance compatible (likely) AND up to it. Gotta be resolving enough to bother with :-)
Then you will Never want to go back to a Pre with gain.. nor should you need to.
Unless using a Turntable.. which then involves a discrete Phono Gizmo..feeding your pot.. which is a Good idea no matter what.
My Endler Audio Shotgun stepped attenuators attach directly to the power amp inputs. Eliminating one of the big problems when using passive preamps - trying to push the signal through a set of output cables and into the amp - greatly helps with transparency and dynamics.However, while I like the different sort of sound that this type of passive preamplification enables, I don't know that it sounds "better" than the sound I've gotten from the active linestages I've used.
And most passive preamps don't protect the downstream components in any way, blocking DC, etc... TVC passives do offer protection but really good TVCs are almost as expensive as good active linestages are.
Edits: 05/08/16 05/08/16
You said it might be this or that that worked for you. It was probably a combo of things. Of course the Kora having a 5V out mode is great for a passive setup. Thanks for your post
ET
Post a Followup:
FAQ |
Post a Message! |
Forgot Password? |
|
||||||||||||||
|
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors: