Passive preamp buzzing?

[Bigman80]

It'll be a whole different ball game mate. Basic passives can have their uses, but after using an AVC or TVC, I don't think you'll be wanting to go back.

I had one extremely good TVC, a MingDa MC-9, which sounds stunning with the two Monarchy Audio power-amps and my buddy has just given me another, a Promitheus, for which I'm very grateful, as it suits the Quad 306 rather well (vastly underrated power-amp the 306, a little gem! ).

Something may have to go though. That's six pre-amps here now! Trouble is, I like 'em all

Yes, I am sure it will give me food for thought. So will sleeping in the doghouse if I decide I can't live without it lol.

Seriously, I completely underated the importance of the preamp in a system, Like Jez, believing it couldn't make much difference. I was wrong.

Spoke to Al, the Jolida shouldn't have any issues with the new caps. He has a copy of the circuit diagrams too. All is good.

BTW they are aluminium and oil Mundorf Evos.

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[Arkless Electronics]

Yes, I am sure it will give me food for thought. So will sleeping in the doghouse if I decide I can't live without it lol.

Seriously, I completely underated the importance of the preamp in a system, Like Jez, believing it couldn't make much difference. I was wrong.

Spoke to Al, the Jolida shouldn't have any issues with the new caps. He has a copy of the circuit diagrams too. All is good.

BTW they are aluminium and oil Mundorf Evos.

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Each to their own but personally I don't think there's any difference worth noting between decent quality passive attenuators. They do sound better than a typical pot though in my experience. I also wouldn't use a TVC personally. Any "improvement" they may bring will be due to added colourations and I want my sound accurate above "nice".

[Bigman80]

Each to their own but personally I don't think there's any difference worth noting between decent quality passive attenuators. They do sound better than a typical pot though in my experience. I also wouldn't use a TVC personally. Any "improvement" they may bring will be due to added colourations and I want my sound accurate above "nice".

Is that a definite or general consensus? I'm a blank canvas as I've never tried one.

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[Macca]

Is that a definite or general consensus? I'm a blank canvas as I've never tried one.

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No, there's as much debate about this as with everything else. On paper a stepped attenuator passive is the most 'truthful'. But not completely so. And then you have personal taste on what you want the sound to be like. As Jez said earlier, the Slagle passive enhanced leading edges a little compared to the others. This could be colouration or the truth, hard to say without listening to a wider variety of recordings than we did. If you have too much colouration some recordings are enhanced, some become unlistenable. That's when you've gone wrong. If you can get it sounding how you want it without falling into that trap, you've cracked it.

I've not cracked it yet.

[Bigman80]

No, there's as much debate about this as with everything else. On paper a stepped attenuator passive is the most 'truthful'. But not completely so. And then you have personal taste on what you want the sound to be like. As Jez said earlier, the Slagle passive enhanced leading edges a little compared to the others. This could be colouration or the truth, hard to say without listening to a wider variety of recordings than we did. If you have too much colouration some recordings are enhanced, some become unlistenable. That's when you've gone wrong. If you can get it sounding how you want it without falling into that trap, you've cracked it.

I've not cracked it yet.

That's encouraging and disheartening at the same time lol.

I've started to realise that in reality the only truth out there is listening to it live at busking level etc. Once recording equipment gets involved its all moving away from the truth. Think I'm gonna focus on getting a realistic sound that I'm confident sounds as clear and transparent as possible. Other than that, i think we're on a hiding to nothing. If I like what I hear, I can't be wrong.

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[RothwellAudio]

... Not sure that 'shunt' resistors are in the signal path in an attenuator, they just take gain away and alter the loads as seen by the source at the input and power amp at the output...

I think this should be the last time I say this or else I'll get a reputation for banging on about it:
A potential divider (that's what a passive preamp is) simply puts the source voltage across two (or more) resistors in series. The ratio of the two resistances determines the two voltages you will get - one voltage across one resistor, the other voltage across the other resistor. Given two equal resistors you will get two equal voltages. Given, say, a 9k resistor and a 1k resistor you will get 10% of the source voltage across one resistor and 90% of the source voltage across the other. The source's signal voltage splits across the two resistors and the signal current flows through both.
How can one resistor not be in the signal path?

As Jez said earlier, the Slagle passive enhanced leading edges a little compared to the others. This could be colouration or the truth, hard to say without listening to a wider variety of recordings than we did. If you have too much colouration some recordings are enhanced, some become unlistenable.

Putting a signal through a transformer sometimes produces overshoot on transients, clearly seen on a square wave.

This has the effect of apparently enhancing detail on simple music but as you rightly point out can make busy music sound very confused. Overshoot is actually well-damped ringing. Poorly damped ringing is worse and looks like this:

[Macca]

That's encouraging and disheartening at the same time lol.

I've started to realise that in reality the only truth out there is listening to it live at busking level etc. Once recording equipment gets involved its all moving away from the truth.

I'm saying truthful to the recording not truthful to the real thing. Hi-fi is all about being truthful to the recording. Not the live experience. That's another trap it is best not fall into. The 'flat earth' trap, that is. I've been in that one too

[Bigman80]

I'm saying truthful to the recording not truthful to the real thing. Hi-fi is all about being truthful to the recording. Not the live experience. That's another trap it is best not fall into. The 'flat earth' trap, that is. I've been in that one too

Ha, I get your point. Well, hopefully I'm on the right path. It sounds like it.

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[walpurgis]

I'm saying truthful to the recording not truthful to the real thing. Hi-fi is all about being truthful to the recording. Not the live experience. That's another trap it is best not fall into. The 'flat earth' trap, that is. I've been in that one too

Quite right. It's the recording that should be truthful to the real thing. The Hi-Fi just has to get on with doing its best to render the recording accurately.

[Bigman80]

Quite right. It's the recording that should be truthful to the real thing. The Hi-Fi just has to get on with doing its best to render the recording accurately.

How do we know what accurate is. Isn't it perception

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