Why do you use a passive preamp over an active one in your system?
- Thread starter joeinid
- Start date
For those who may be interested here is my review of this preamp:
http://hifiwigwam.com/forum/topic/119040-review-of-khozmo-passive-preamplifier/
http://hifiwigwam.com/forum/topic/119040-review-of-khozmo-passive-preamplifier/
Hi,
I was very interested in these Polish Khozmo passive preamps about a year ago. But then I bought Audeze head-amp as active preamp, sold it and bought Burson head-amp as active preamp.
Now my brother is thinking about passive preamp for his system. We know an expert who has been making his own power amps, active and passive preamps, all types of cables and power cords and power conditioners, for decades. He gave one of his passive preamps to my brother a week ago. Brother loves the sound. That expert explained to me that there are resistor-based passive preamps and transformer passive preamps. I'm no expert so don't ask me any details, but that expert said that those two types of passive preamps are quite different and that resistor-based ones are no match for transformer passive preamps. And that is why he is against these pretty and popular Khozmo preamps, because they are resistor-based, and not nearly as good as his transformer passive preamps. He also says that an ultimate preamp is passive transformer preamp.
Maybe this will be of some help or interest to someone. Maybe I'll end up with a passive preamp one day too.
CPP
Active member
Its both Joe. It works as a passive until you feel the need to crank the volume up then it adds some gain .
Hey mep, I use the W4S STP-SE with my Chinook and it works great, and with my Lumin and my CD player and my DAC, just a all around decent working pre-amp. .
Jack
Active member
Works great with my Analog setup too.
Randy Myers
Well-known member
The STP-SE is a resistor ladder hybrid... you have to push it quite high before it kicks to active though.
Jack
Active member
You need to go above 66 to get to the active buffer stage. I have never come anywhere close even with the 82db sensitivity Vandersteen Treo. With the KO's or the Spatials, 30 is loud.
Randy Myers
Well-known member
Maybe with a First Watt amplifier 
... but never got it out of the 40's.... so it is pretty much a passive pre-amplifier.
... but never got it out of the 40's.... so it is pretty much a passive pre-amplifier.
a.wayne
Well-known member
The transformer type will have more gain and hence more dynamics , same for an active pre-amp ..
IMO , Full passive for smooth and easy Because dynamic and "real" is not your thing .....
I have no idea what you meant.
But... to continue with my story from few months ago: that transformer passive preamp (hand-made and home-made in Croatia) is now in my system, on a loan from its owner and maker, for indefinite time. I use it now for some 8 days - and my system sounds absolutely superior with it!
At many places around the web I've read that some people don't like passive preamps because the sound with them in system sounds like it "lacks dynamics". Well, with this one, I've got the opposite result!
Let's start from the beginning.
CD player is Simaudio MOON CD5.3 RS. Interconnect is temporary, cheap and not audiophile-grade quality. My active preamp is Burson Audio Conductor Virtuoso (it has built-in DAC, but I don't use Burson's DAC for signal from player, only for signal from computer which I don't use for listening music). From Burson there's another temporary interconnect (the Burson Audio's own interconnect) to Hitachi HMA-8500 MKII power amp. Kimber 8 PR speaker cables lead to Sonus faber Toy Towers.
I used the best remasters / CD editions of Marvin Hamlisch's "The Spy Who Loved Me" and Grace Jones' "Warm Leatherette" to test the difference between Burson Audio Conductor Virtuoso and the home-made transformer-based passive preamp. I also had a third preamp for testing which took several hours: Onkyo P-303 (active vintage).
Conclusion:
the sound is better - with both passive preamp and Onkyo P-303 - than with my Burson. Passive and Onkyo sound different, but much more similar to each other, than when compared to Burson. It took me less than 10 minutes to realise that with passive I get much MORE NATURAL sound. The maker of that passive preamp said that it's actually my CD player, which is really fantastic and his passive preamp finally allows MOON player to shine in full light, to show its character, just how great it sounds. With Burson, the sound is flat, lacks dynamics, seems artifical, somehow cold, digital, I would say... it's hard to describe the sound with words, so I'm trying my best. It's not such a bad sound per se, but it sounds like that when compared to a sound with passive preamp in a place of Burson. The bass with passive is DEEPER and FIRMER. In short - the bass is magnificent, everything you want bass to be. When passive is replaced with Burson again, the whole tonal range moves slightly upwards, if you understand me. I'm especially thrilled with how thin acoustic strings sound with passive preamp, much more LIVELY... also small bells, cymbals... never sounded better, passive gives an overall feel of NATURALNESS. The vibe is different, rich, inviting to listen more. To my surprise, very similar natural quality was with Onkyo active preamp, although different than with passive, but amazing nevertheless. However, to achieve the same loudness, Onkyo's volume knob has to be in 9 o'clock position and passive's knobs (it has one for every channel) have to be in 3 o'clock position. With weaker amps this passive wouldn't be a great option, I guess... but my current Hitachi is a 100-watt Mos Fet dual mono... so it's not a problem.