the Pass DCB1 isn't truly a passive preamp, is it?
The Beatles. Apologies. I do hear individual strings and details like at no time before. It is as if a layer or sound screen has been peeled off (no pun intended). If you have an intelligent comment to make, why not make it?
The lack of dynamics is often stated as a weak point with passive preamps.
Personally I have zero interest in active pres! Passives win in every way including dynamics.
This can't surely be an absolute, Jez? My power amp requires an input of 3V for full power. It sounds good when used with a passive but with my active preamp is on a different level entirely.
This colour that the active preamp gives to the sound, it could be something that the amp designers have planned for, something that was part of their total conception. I’m thinking of the Radford STA and SC22, for example. Or indeed the pre component of any well designed integrated amp.
The pre/power combination could be part of the “magic” that the amp designers are trying to create.
I wonder how the Musical Fidelity Nu Vista 300 would sound without its pre.
Ah, i thought it was an integrated amp, the NuVista 300, that’s why I asked.
I’m still tempted to buy one, because I’ve leaned to trust your judgement! The price of the rebuilt one in London is slowly coming down.