Want a good quality passive preamp with remote. Suggestions welcome.

For use with my 300B amp, remote basically being the main raison d'etre, as the amp itself has a manual volume control.

After my second spinal surgery, bending down to adjust volume is more demanding than it used to be. Besides, I'm just lazy, and like a remote.

Please no Schiit Saga+ suggestions - I want something truly passive, and something finer, if not to say "better".

For now, I have my eyes set on Hattor Audio Mini Passive Pre:

Mini Passive-Active Pre

Suggestions for something this level of quality or better are sought.

 

Audio Research SP-9.. Ooops no remote.

 

Pre Amplifiers

I have had a Music First Audio mark II since 2010, and have been very happy with it. It is no longer made, but looks like at least their Reference, and possibly other models, has a remote.

 

I don't have a horse in this race but the Hattor heat sink fins that spell out "HATTORAUDIO" look killer! Kudos to those engineers.

 

The Hattor looks sweet! I own a Tortuga and can recommend them.

Products Archive | Tortuga Audio

 

A passive with remote isn't really going to be passive, because you're going to need a power supply to drive whatever remote volume adjustment circuitry the preamp uses. Sure, you can keep the signal chain passive, but it's going to be any more "truly passive" than the Schiit Saga Plus that you mention in passive mode, or the Tortuga active/passive or whatever.

 

The Creek OBH-22 or the older OBH-12 are excellent remote controlled passive pre-amps and are very reasonably priced.

If you fancy splashing out a bit more then the Audio Synthesis Passion ultimate is one of the best pre-amps ever made, if you can find one.

 

I do mean passive signal path. I don't want anything added to the sound of my 300B's.

 

Icon Audio Passive R.

 

The very best is the EMIA Autoformer which is available with a remote.

 

Thanks. Sent an inquiry to my Icon dealer - Audioarcan, in Ontario.

 

Thanks. Found one in 8/10 condition. Sent an inquiry to the seller.

 

Looks very nice. But, for $3,900, I think I will pass.

 

Hattor looks great..

 

Tortuga Audio...Love mine has a remote too

 

The Emia is very good. Autoformer volume control is a form of transformer volume control. Instead of burning off the signal as heat to lower v0lume, voltage is converted to current. This form of volume control/passive linestage is much more dynamic and lively sounding. Emia used to sell the bare guts of the remotely controlled autoformer so that it could be installed in one's own gear or box, but, I don't see that now on their website. To me, transformer volume control is the very best passive approach, but, most of these do not offer remove control, and/or, because of how complex and difficult it is to wire, they have limited number of attenuation steps (the right volume always seems to be between two steps).

Perhaps, you could locate a Placette Remote Volume Control. This is a stepped attenuator that utilizes a large number of Vishay resistors and relays to switch them in and out. I heard it compared to the Placette active linestage (unity gain buffer, i.e., no additional amplification); I preferred the active over the passive (I bought their linestage), but, both are very good.

Another approach is a light-dependant resistor volume control. A friend of mine made a remote volume control from readily available parts. It was pretty good for a passive control.

 

why passive?

 

I'd be curious to try the Smart icOn4 AVC (autoformer) passive preamp with remote . They have a lot of options, either TVC or AVC, I really like the icOn2 that uses a custom version of the SAC Thailand Silk transformers with 1dB taps. The very clean icOn4 is shown below using Dave Slagle's autoformers...

 

The icOn units do indeed look interesting. The Slagle autoformer is the unit that EMIA uses as well. This seems to be a unit that provides most of the functions one would want, particularly remote volume and balance control. Ideally, the steps would be smaller than 1.5 db, for purposes of balance control, but you can't really have everything. It would also be nicer if the display showed the volume levels for both channels.

 

One of the more expensive models does have both channels on display, as well as input selected, etc. I think when you select the menu button on remote for balance, it should show you the setting. There's a pretty long review at sixmoons - icOn4 Pro review that covers much of the operation and a lot of pictures, and talks about some of the other alternatives, but they really love the icOn4.

 

The EMIA is a Bent audio TAP x with Slagle AVCs inside and Slagle is part of the EMIA teem
I built my own TAP X years ago when you could get the parts . The ICON is the one to buy now if you are looking to save over the EMIA

 

Why not??

 

Luminous Audio Technology - Axiom II

One of these variants may be of interest to you.

Axiom Preamps

I own a fully loaded Axiom III myself and it's fantastic, but I do need the gain of my active pre.

 

What does he hope to gain?

 

I will recommend against the Creek OBH-12. Purchased new about 25 years ago, the remote never worked very well then died after about 5 years. The remote controls inputs and volume so without it, it is reduced to a single input, non remote controllable volume control/attenuator. SQ is fine, but apparently it uses a cheap pot.