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Here is from someone who tried.

Posted by cheap-Jack (M) on May 15, 2006 at 08:54:45

In Reply to: Re: Nothing is perfect. posted by Dave Cigna on May 12, 2006 at 19:31:24:

Hi.

I know a serious audiophile locally who has spent much time & money on different passive level controls. He is so thorough on almost everything audio, including something I seldom touch: sonics of different digital cables, that I found myself so belittled by him. I don't have the time to do such sonic comparison on various passive controls like he did. Hence I borrow his valuable sonic experience.

(I publish it without his permission to do so. Hopefully he would not get mad with me for doing so. I know he reads my posts. We are only 40 minutes driving distance apart.)

"I can switch a direct input with the TVC on the input of the power amp. The Slagle Autotransformer is a plug in unit with RCAs. So it plugs into the direct input. So did a 600R Daven & various pots. My S&B 102 is MK2, I had on load MK3 & silver NK3. It plugged in the same way. The Placette passive used regular RCA audio cables."

"Nothing is perfect. My feeling was that ALL transformers I tried too off the very top frequency sparkle."

"The difference between S&B TVCs are NOT big. Slagle is a different
sound, may be tougher, less smooth & requires a large coupling cap."

"The Placette full of Vishay S102 resistors was more HiFi-ish sounding. Daven is way to soft for my taste.

BTW, my very first volume - a 10 turn precision pot with a series
resistor -was not bad at all."

Of course, matching is so important. Mind you, this audiophile friend got pretty expensive hi performance gears. One thing I know I'm in common with him sonically: extended high end which has tempted me to use & adopt min 4N silver interconnects. Per my ears, no copper ICs can touch pure silvers.

One day I would send him a pair of my DIY silver ICs & power cord
for him to try out. Surely his Pacette would sound much better than using standard RCA cords.

Sonics is subjective yet we should not deny the basic electrical principles of reactive loads.

c-J

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