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Preamps...

I've tried a few passive methods of controling the volume of an amplifier, but never found one that I liked. Maybe I never did it right. I don't know. I'll say that there WERE obvious advantages to a passive control, but once I connected a decent tube preamp, I immediately found what I had been missing - drive and body.
With passive controls, I've always had to crank my amps to at least 1/3-1/2 full throttle (regardless of passive configuration), even with 96+dB sensitive speakers, to get to a room-filling volume. At this point, the amount of distortion that I was hearing usually made it so that I was unable to listen very long.
I'm VERY sensitive to distortions.

There are ways in which passive volume controls are to superior to a preamp, but in my experience, the trade-offs are worth what I get with a good preamp.
That's just my preference though.
And indeed I listen to CDs, vinyl and reel-to reel (my favorite) as well.

Thanks for posting.

Adam

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