Passive preamp buzzing?

[Marco]

Reading the website doesn't suggest so, Marco. Hand wound by the man himself. Unless he sources parts?

Yup, and you's think those must come from China. Nothing wrong with that, but it'd explain the price.

Marco.

[Bigman80]

Make sure you also compare the KIN directly with the AVC, both used on their own as the system's preamp. I'd expect the KIN to be notably better! And when you suss out why, you'll 'get' why passives [at any price] are ultimately more compromised than the best active designs, especially when valves have been used judiciously in their design...



Doesn't exist. It's all down to using your own judgement. I've never understood why folks need a "standard bearer", or in hi-fi magazine terms, a "Best Buy five-star Winner"...

That's for mindless lazy-arses, who don't trust their own ears and simply want to be TOLD what to buy, which I'm sure isn't you!

Marco.

Fair enough lol, im not lazy haha

Will do all the combos possible mate, it'll be very thorough.

Sent from my EVA-L09 using Tapatalk

[Bigman80]

http://www.enjoythemusic.com/diy/061...ol_modules.htm

"Dave Slagle's goal was to offer an affordable inductive volume control that measures really well, is easy to install, and provides sufficiently fine volume steps. It makes much more technical sense to use an auto transformer (aka autoformer) for this application. Since there's no need to isolate the primary and secondary windings, and both windings may be grounded, it is perfectly fine to combine the primary and secondary into a single winding. That's exactly what McIntosh has been doing for decades with their output transformer based solid-state amplifiers. Dave uses an 80% nickel core for increased permeability. As far as the switch, production has recently shifted from the British Lorlin to an Alpha switch made in China for improved reliability. Dave says that he really wanted to keep the thing US and Euro made but sadly the Lorlin switches were causing 1 in 10 pair to come back to with issues. While the original and cheaper modules ($200) were apparently a royal pain to wire up, the new AVC module only requires a three-wire hookup per channel, In, Out, and Ground, much like a conventional pot. Dave would like to give credit and special thanks to Bent Audio's John Chapman for his help in designing the current circuit boards."

[Marco]

Fair enough lol, im not lazy haha

Will do all the combos possible mate, it'll be very thorough.

No worries. I was being slightly facetious in my precious post, and that's mostly because all you'll likely get is a list of ones folks here use, or ones they *think* might be good, as they've read about them in a magazine - all based on their individual bias and preferences, which at the end of the day, may not be yours!

So what real good would it do? This is where you have to do the proper homework yourself. By all means consider any recommendations given, but it's really up to you to do the necessary research, then try some stuff out you think ticks the right boxes, and see how it goes.

*That* is how you both a) learn in a beneficial way, and b) build a hi-fi system, truly fit for YOU, rather than simply a copycat version of that belonging to others, and one that hopefully you'll enjoy and will last you a long time!

Quite simply, if you do things that way, you'll likely make fewer mistakes and save a heap of money in the long term

Marco.

[Bigman80]

No worries. I was being slightly facetious in my precious post, and that's mostly because all you'll likely get is a list of ones folks here use, or ones they *think* might be good, as they've read about them in a magazine - all based on their individual bias and preferences, which at the end of the day, may not be yours!

So what real good would it do? This is where you have to do the proper homework yourself. By all means consider any recommendations given, but it's really up to you to do the necessary research, then try some stuff out you think ticks the right boxes, and see how it goes.

*That* is how you both a) learn in a beneficial way, and b) build a hi-fi system, truly fit for YOU, rather than simply a copycat version of that belonging to others, and one that hopefully you'll enjoy and will last you a long time!

Quite simply, if you do things that way, you'll likely make fewer mistakes and save a heap of money in the long term

Marco.

No worries, Marco. It was taken in good spirits.

All combos will be tried with much scrutiny. I'm interested to see is any colouration is present and how it affects the sound. Also, the KIN has a Alps blue which has already been bettered by the stepped attentuator (shamans) and the AVC (ALi's) i'd love to drop a stepped attenuater in the FB and see what difference that makes. One for the future maybe.

[walpurgis]

What would a buffer do? Honestly I'm not thick lol. I've not been into hi-fi that long so this sort of stuff is all new

Here's a review of the original Musical Fidelity X10-D, which sums up what a buffer offers.

https://www.stereophile.com/tubepreamps/873/index.html

[Bigman80]

Here's a review of the original Musical Fidelity X10-D, which sums up what a buffer offers.

https://www.stereophile.com/tubepreamps/873/index.html

ah, now i understand.

[walpurgis]

ah, now i understand.

Good little gizmo the X10-D. They do have their uses. I have two, one in use at the moment with the CD replay side of things (it just works! ) and another that needs the two valves replacing and a once over. Must get around to having a look at it actually.

[Bigman80]

My CD player is basically redundant again lol. I wouldn't put one on The vinyl side though.

Sent from my EVA-L09 using Tapatalk

[Arkless Electronics]

I don't think that Stereophile article explains what a buffer is very well at all.

A buffer is a device with a very high input impedance and low output impedance. There is one in one form or another at the output of virtually all pre amps, phono stages, CD players, DACS etc etc. It has no voltage gain but lots of power gain ie it doesn't amplify the signal but it does make it much more powerful. They are also called Voltage Followers as the output follows the input in voltage. A silly analogy, imagine Volts were speed... it's still doing 10MPH but before it was a toy sail boat doing 10MPH and which would be stopped or slowed by the slightest friction... after the buffer it's still doing 10MPH because the voltage hasn't been amplified... but now it could drag a tree at 10MPH.

Suppose we have a source with a high output impedance like 10K. If we were to try and drive a 10K passive it would form a potential divider with the output impedance of the source and therefore the output of the source would be halved by the presence of the passive even when set to full volume!

I is important to note that just because a buffer has a very low output impedance doesn't mean it can actually drive very low impedance loads! It implies this yes but without the current to back it up we would get lots of distortion. It can be designed to give all the current one could want of course and in fact the output stage of a SS power amp is almost always a buffer! Usually it's just designed to have more than enough for the intended use though.