I have used active pre-amps for years namely a Hi fi world klpp1 , a concordant( lovely) and s Leak varislope, rebuild with outboard power supply. I reasoned one day that phono aside, the Leaks i,m using did,t need active pre operation. The input sensitivity being 1.25 mv for full power. Most cd players output 2 volts , most phono stages 1-1.5 mv. I purchased a Tisbury passive and IFI phono stage and auditioned. Well , in a nutshell, absolutely fantasic! Fm was awesome, i,ve never heard my Troughline sound so good, eerie silences between the notes, a veil has just been lifted, no doubt. Music seems relaxed, and flows. Cd was the very best i have heard it. Input overload must afflict many users, despite a dedicated cd input. The vinyl was best of the lit. But I think thats another story. Anyone else experienced this?
Yes, definitely give one a try. I hear very good things of the Tisbury. Other brands of course are available.
While I admire the minimalist approach, and I still own my Promitheus C-cores, I always return to the active. YMMV.
Active has the potential to be better but there are 2 issues... excessive gain and cost. Most systems don't need gain so a buffer is really what you want, not an active gain stage. Also, good active buffer or gain stages that make a positive contribution cost a lot money, many active preamps make things sound worse. For a passive I'd consider Tortuga, I just built a pre using the Tortuga LDR DIY parts and it turned out fantastic. My pre also has an Aikido 6SN7 tube buffer, listening to the pre with and without the buffer I definitely prefer the buffer but it cost a lot with the parts I used. One nice feature on the Tortuga LDR is adjustable input impedance, for some systems this can be a big benefit.
A key feature of the Tortuga is balance control. My previous passive, a Creek OBH-12, did not have this. The stepped resistors, no matter how finely matched, will vary a bit over their range. Especially noticeable if your speakers don't futz with phase variance.
I used to run my system with no preamp at all other than my home built Leach phono preamp. It only had two trimmer pots and it was a bitch to constantly adjust the gain and keep the center image centered. I was using a Spectra Sonics 700 amplifier system which was card based and had no gain controls. That system sounded very good, but in many cases an active section actually improves the sound. I'd have not believed this until I heard it with my own ears.
Another passive fan here. Tortuga LDR3.v2 Tortuga's rechargeable battery power supply will be out soon too.
Agreed, the Tortuga has a lot of nice features, it can also do source switching so it is a complete solution for volume, balance, source and adding in adjustable impedance is icing on the cake. This is the first remote controlled preamp I've built and it's spoiling me, not sure I'd ever want to go without again.
Personally, I'd go without. I built mine with Broski's high performance 12V power supply. In the past I've experimented with battery power using different caps, etc but I think a high quality linear regulated power supply is even better and there are no batteries to wear out.
Thanks for the info. Food for thought. Will look into buffers. One never stops learning. Pre amps are a necessary evil, but confusing when there are so many ways to build them. I believe some Crofts were passive on cd and active on phono.
I'm also using the Tortuga. It gives a very very clean sound with no glare and plenty of detail. My biggest complaint is that the Apple remote is a pain to use sometimes. It's great to be able to dial in a precise volume level but it actually has too many steps in it sometimes. In my setup a remote is absolutely mandatory.
Yes, I love my remote... Here's some pics I just posted on AC of my Tortuga/Aikido preamps: http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=138965.0