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Passive vs Active Linestage: My experience

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Hello all,

Thought I'd share the latest addition to my system and some of my findings:
For the past few months I have been running a DIY passive preamp in my system. I leaned towards the Thorsten view. That is I didn't perceive any justification for an active linestage for low impedance output devices (CD players) into high impedance tube amps, given the amp had sufficient sensitivity. My DIY passive has good quality connectors and an ALP's pot with short interconnects.
To make a long story short, I decided to give an active linestage a try. I choose the Welborne Labs Reveille for several reasons: I was looking for a project to build, the Reveille is 6SN7 based, Welborne Labs reputation, quality components, and it is a very attractive unit.
The results (somewhat preliminary): The high-end frequency range hit me first. My passive must have been rolling off alot of the top end, so much more musical content is now apparent. Next, and probably more important, the soundstage had expanded, not only in width, but more striking was the depth. The presentation is more 3D, alive, layered and dynamic.
To be fair, I have played with stepped attenuators in the past, and I did note a definite improvement, especially in the top-end. However, I don't think I can attribute all that I am hearing to better quality attenuation.
The downside, I may have lost a touch off the bottom end, but I am so enthralled with what I am hearing everywhere else, I haven't decided if that has really happened.
I just swapped out the JAN Phillips NOS which come stock (not too shabby) with Raytheons. It's a little early to report any results about that yet.
I need to get some more listening time on the unit, in order to solidify my impressions, but I am pretty sure I won't be going back to a passive linestage.

Mike


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Topic - Passive vs Active Linestage: My experience - mike b 10:39:41 09/18/99 (14)


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