Khozmo Passive Preamps - Cheap AND Lovely!

[User211]

Khozmo Passive Preamps (http://www.khozmo.com/)

Much nicer to look at than a Tisbury. Anyone tried one of these? Look at the price...:)

He occasionally sells on ebay and his f/b is OK. Google reveals some problems buying his potentiometers - at least that seemed true a while ago. Might be OK now.

[walpurgis]

They look good, shame they don't have lids.

[User211]

They are lid off show off pics.

Check: http://www.khozmo.com/dual_mono_selector.html

[walpurgis]

I was joking :)

[jandl100]

They do look nice - and remote control on the non-dual-mono ones for $200 extra.
So for about £350 UK del you can get a very nice remote control Vishay resistor passive pre. Hmm :hmm: not bad at all!

[User211]

Eh? R/C? That's new... very new.

Hm indeed:eek:

[jandl100]

Go on - get one and bring it round. ;)

-- have a head2head with my teensy Tisbury pre.

[User211]

I had half a thought to do that with the Air Tight passive... el cheapo versus the super expensive Alps pot. Bet there isn't much in it.

I'm gonna buy some Emission Labs 274B valves instead. About the same money, freakily.

You should buy one. You need R/C really.

[User211]

Actually R/C isn't new, I'd just forgotten he did it. Looks like you get a nice digital volume display with the R/C option too.

[Mika K]

One of my friends has one without the R/C option and he is happily using it occasionally replacing his expensive tube preamp. Have heard it few times and not bad at all.. :)

[YNWaN]

Perhaps passive preamps of this type work in the right system context; however, I have yet to hear that context. On the other hand, I have heard transformer coupled pre-amps perform extremely well - but these do not operate on that principle.

[User211]

I quite like what Haden Boardman said to me.

"I hate preamps"

When asked why, he said he didn't like the philosophy of adding circuitry to improve the sound. It seems counter-intuitive.

I like passives for that reason. Let's face it, most tube preamps are colouration devices. Some are MUCH better at it than others, however. When compared to a passive, I always seem to be able to hear what other approaches (e.g. solid state actives, TVCs) are "doing".

[realysm42]

Isn't there always a counter argument though?

[Mika K]

Several of those, and to both directions :)

[realysm42]

Several of those, and to both directions :)

Just to keep it simple :eyebrows:

I'm fighting the urge to buy a preamp right now as I need a power amp too; this stuff takes consideration...