2 comments on “Why aren’t passive preamps more popular?”
I have a PS IV a. with the passive volume control/ input selector box labled “VK”. All electrical circuits were in the PS
IVa box and the VK box had two Alps volume controls and a selector switch for phono, tape or tuner. No balance pot present or required. No internal active circuits in the volume control selector box. I can say the lid was likely a different metal that was a shield from RF interference. I could hold that lid under my Grado moving magnet phono cartridge and cut noise quite well. Maybe a mu metal?? It was a black box and matched the phono preamp box which had a switch for the cartridge gain accessible on the bottom of the box. Had several input jacks in the rear as well as an output jack pair fed by the Alps pots. Not sure if it was earlier or later than the one you show. Later units put the two packages in a single chassis and no longer had the phono gain switch accessible from the base of the preamp end of that chassis but had an easily removable lid to access things.
I have a PS IV a. with the passive volume control/ input selector box labled “VK”. All electrical circuits were in the PS
IVa box and the VK box had two Alps volume controls and a selector switch for phono, tape or tuner. No balance pot present or required. No internal active circuits in the volume control selector box. I can say the lid was likely a different metal that was a shield from RF interference. I could hold that lid under my Grado moving magnet phono cartridge and cut noise quite well. Maybe a mu metal?? It was a black box and matched the phono preamp box which had a switch for the cartridge gain accessible on the bottom of the box. Had several input jacks in the rear as well as an output jack pair fed by the Alps pots. Not sure if it was earlier or later than the one you show. Later units put the two packages in a single chassis and no longer had the phono gain switch accessible from the base of the preamp end of that chassis but had an easily removable lid to access things.
Can you explain the “buffer” you mentioned at the end to “get the bass back”?
(Sounds like a Meghan Trainor song!)
Thanks,
Eric