Simply adds nothing to the source signals..

none I can think of...

Paired this with a nad c272 amp, nad c541i cdp and pair of polk rti-10's. Was going to get the nad c162 but did not need the ability to listen to headphones or play vinal. I also did not want the tone controls or the balance pot... What I was after was a quality pre-amp but I didn't want to pay alot... I have heard for an active pre to really be transparent and and upper end unit the starting price would be 1500 dollars which was simply out of my reach... Research pointed me towards passives and paul lam and the little wonder... It has the x-coupler which helps deal with impedance matching issues.... The little wonder and nad amp together are wonderful... My nad cdp and tuner have more then enough output voltage to drive the amp. The sound is rich and very clear and compared to my denon dra-685, well let's say I have taken 2 steps up. Also dynamics and bass have not suffered in the least in fact the nad amp produces much bass, my denon did not!!! A great buy and paul lam is fantastic, answers any and all questions and has a generous trail period. If you have any doubts about passive give the little wonder a try, you may never go active again...

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my first dedicated pre-amp...

Solid build, nothing to plug in or worry about.

No remote but then again the price you have to pay for perfection.

Just received the LW1 and all I can say in twenty plus years of trying to achieve sonic nirvana is WOW! Talking and communicating with Paul was a pleasure and could not be more delighted with the $500 I spent. I have it playing in my office using Innersound ISIS speaker and ATI 1502 amp (Odyssey Stratos amp shipped today according to Klaus) and this unit out of the box sounds every bit as good as my Anthem Pre 2 SE. Paul tells me to run it for 200 hours and it will sound even better. This is one time where I wish time would fly!!

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Audio by Van Alstine Super Fet preamp, Anthem Pre 2SE, B&K 307 etc, etc.

Transparent, neutral and wide soundstage

None, if you do not require gain or balanced inputs.

Used the LW-1 for about four months. The LW-1 is extremely transparent and neutral. I did not find any of the weaknesses usually associated with a passive pre amp. In my system, I use 1m interconnects with no loss of dynamic. The bass of the LW-1 is solid and deep. When compared to my Bryston BP20, the LW-1 is more transparent with a wider sound stage while matching the BP20 in bass reproduction. I paired the LW-1 with the Odyssey Stratos, the performance of the combo is exceptional. I am sure you can find better pre and power amps combo but you will have to spend a lot more. I have used the LW-1 with my Bryston 3b-st as well with very excellent result. In my opinion, the LW-1 even outperformed the Bryston BP20 when paired with the 3b-st. If the input sensitivity of your amp allows, I would strongly recommend the LW-1. I am sure you would not be disappointed.

Cheers,
happy

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first passive pre amp.

I've never heard a component that just gets out of the way of the music as much as this one does...for a measly 5 bills! I would be VERY worried if I were the manufacturer of expensive (or inexpensive!) line stages.

1.)Long break in. (2.)Don't try to drive long cables with preamp, unless they're very high quality, like Kimber Select. (3.)The usual precautions with passive preamps apply-you have to look at the input impedance and sensitivity of your power amp, and the output impedances and voltages of your source components, to see if this will work in your system or not. (3.)VERY revealing (maybe that's a strength). You got dooky sounding components or interconnects, don't expect this unit to cover it up, because it won't. (4.)It's got the dreaded kamakazi tape monitor switch...do something dumb like switch it to "record" when you've got the source selector switched to tape, you will blow something up. So, just don't do that, and you'll be fine.

We all know the shiboleths about passive pre's...they can't drive IC's longer than a half meter, they lack dynamics, punch and bass, their sound quality changes dependent on the position of the volume pot, they're finicky. Welcome to a brave new world. The FT Audio LW-1 has broken the mold.
I don't know everything involved...there's a proprietary "module" of some kind inside that gets around the impedance matching problem with source components that have a pretty high output impedance. Along the same lines, it can drive a wider range of interconnect lengths, and amplifiers with varying sensitivity, than a lot of passives can. As Paul Lam, the distributor, is fond of pointing out, most source components now have more than enough voltage to drive the power amp, so why amplify it more, than have to turn it down, which is what line stages do.
The sound? There isn't any of it's own. I've NEVER heard a component that has less of a sound of its own. It just plain kicks the snot out of every active preamp I've ever had in my system, which includes a Bryston, an MFA Magus, and a Conrad Johnson PV10. And it beats them in their traditional areas of strength. One expects a good passive pre to be more transparent and delicate sounding than a comparably priced line stage. But this one beats 'em in bass, explosive dynamics, rhythmic drive-all things one does not usually associate with passives. Music just plain sounds more alive, less canned with this in my system.
The catch? There is no free lunch. You want to hear what this component can do, you'd better have good source components upstream of it, and you'd better feed it top quality interconnect, because this preamp is preternaturally sensitive to the wire hooked up to it. Anyone who says wire doesn't matter should just drop one of these into their systems. Paul Lam recommends Kimber wire, as that's what it's wired with internally. Silver Streak as a minimum, Kimber Select 1020 preferred. It matters...a lot, as there is no active circuitry to ameliorate the effects of the cables upstream of it.
To summarize, dropping this component into your system may make you radically rethink a lot of things...it certainly has me. I've just removed a HUGE bottleneck in my system called a linestage-the LW-1 has turned it into a living, fire breathing musical monster. After 12 years in this insane hobby, I'm finally getting the sound I've always craved, for relative peanuts. The system now is synergistic-it exceeds the sum of its parts by a wide margin.I truly hate to turn it off nights. I owe it to Paul Lam, the LW-1, and Kimber Select 1020...thanks, Paul!
System:Well Tempered Record Player, ClearAudio Aurum Beta>EAR 834P/Ah!Tjoeb CDP>FT Audio LW-1>Music Reference RM10 amp>Magnepan MMG's. Kimber Select 1020 between pre and power amp. All other cable Dh Labs Silver Sonics, to be gradually replaced one component at a time with Kimber Select 1010 as a minimum. Oh...these are still early days. Paul assures me it'll continue to get better, for several weeks. I can take it...
To summarize, if your preamp needs are simple-you're not going to do better than this unless you spend big bucks...and why? This costs so little for what it gives it feels like a gift. Spend the money you save on more music, or better interconnects, or feed the poor, or something.
This is one very sane way of getting off the audio merry go round. Other than trying to snag a few more pairs of Kimber Select, my upgradeitis is history, because I've finally got the sound I wanted.

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This is my 1st passive pre in my system-it's the 1st one well designed enough to work with my gear.

The FT Audio LW1 defies the limitations of typical passive control units. It is not only transparent and natural, but dynamic as well. A/B'd with well known high performance passive preamp designs including McCormack ALD-1, Counterpoint, Sonic Fronteirs, Audio Research and QED Vector Reference, the LW1 holds its own with equal or better performance in its ability to portray music in a very natural, transparent and dynamic fashion, unlike any other passive design I am aware of. The specially designed passive circuitry maintains a working impedence over a narrow range out of the signal path preserving the transparency of the audio signal without compromising dynamics and bass authority typical of other passive designs.For reference, I was running a CAL CL-15 CD player with digital volume control direct into my power amp with very satisfactory results. Adding the LW1 to the system (between the CD player and power amp) simply made the presentation more natural, liquid and palpable without any digital glare or dynamic compromise. At $500 retail, this design sets a new standard in performance and value. If you're in the market for a preamp, passive or active, make sure the LW1 is on your short list. It may come out on top. FT Audio is a great company with strong customer support. Highly recommended.
http://members.tripod.com/~FTAUDIO/ftaudio.htm

A few weeks ago I was privileged to hear the FT Audio Passive Controller LW-1 in action in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. I heard the LW-1 in conjunction with an integrated Roksan amplifier (bypassing its internal pre-amp and running directly into the LW-1), a Roksan CD player, Quad mini-monitor speakers, high quality Kimber cable interconnects and speaker cables. The soundstage presented through the LW-1 was transparent, spacious, detailed, and clear. Removing the LW-1 and returning to the preamp in the integrated Roksan was horrible. The soundstage became closed in, muffled, and muddy. Returning to the LW-1, the world of sound became a much nicer place.
Later, we tried an AMC tube amp in place of the Roksan integrated. The sound changed drastically. It became warmer, rounded, slower, and less-open and detailed than with the Roksan. I usually prefer tubes to solid state, but in this instance, the Roksan integrated had the better sound. Up until this point, I was not fully cognizant that the amplifier being used in a stereo system was so crucial and that different amps could sound radically different. The utter transparency of the LW-1 passive preamp helped to make this clear to me.

I've become quite enamoured with the LW-1 made by FT Audio and someday may acquire one. The revealing soundstage coupled with clarity and transparency has captivated me. As I have excellent source components in my stereo kit and a terrific tube amp (the Zen amp by Decware), I owe it to my ears to have the best preamp that I can find. At this point in time, the FT Audio LW-1 is that preamp. And it retails for around $500 U.S. What a bargain! And for my ears, what a treat!!

The FT Audio LW1 is an absolute bargain. I have heard it in a variety of systems with a wide range of other components. I have also heard it compared to other pre-amps, some costing $3000 and in every case, the LW 1 beat them. What makes this pre-amp so good? In my mind it is the price for around $500 US it simply crushes the competition. This is the first pre-amp that I have heard that adds next to nothing to the sound, whatever you put in you get out. I have bought one for myself and recommend it to others!

I recently acquired the FT-Audio LW-1. It replaced a QED MA34PG passive pre-amp I had been using in my system for a number of years. All passives do NOT sound the same. The LW-1 has been optimized to produce excellent dynamics especially in the low level setting of the volume control. Because I normally do most of my listening at less than "ear-splitting" volume I can really notice a greater sense of "air" surrounding instruments with the LW-1. Bass is much better defined. Sounds seem to be more detailed too, and "warmer" than with the QED. Although I have never had tubes in my system, I have the impression the LW-1 is tube-like in its qualities. The word that comes to mind is "pristine". The best quality of a preamp is "neutrality" -- it shouldn't add or detract anything from the sound going into it. And although I have very limited experience, I think the LW-1 has this quality. I don't hear any grain at all, and there is tons of depth. The stereo image is excellent.
Currently I have about 100 hours on the LW-1. It needs about 160 hours to be completely broken in, but at the moment it sounds very good indeed. It is almost scary to think things might get even better!

Transparent, well-constructed

manual???

I would like to go on record and say that the LW-1 passive preamp/control unit is great. It is very transparent (i.e., does not impart it's own sonic characteristic), and well-constructed (aluminum faceplate, cover and connectors are fantastic). With a well-recorded CD, decent CDP, amp, and good pair of speakers you will, without a doubt, hear the musical detail that the sound engineers intended you to hear.

I'm glad I own this unit. I believe this is one of the best audio equipment investments I have ever made. Now, all I really need to do to complete my system is to find a sub that will go seamlessly with my Krix Equinox speakers.

I can't leave this review without thanking Paul Lam for his high level of professionalism. He demonstrated extraordinary patience by answering every single one of my inquiries (~20 emails) pre and post purchase of the LW-1. In all of his responses not once did he criticize my equipment nor did he even try to 'push' the sale of his preamp on me. Thanks Paul.

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Conrad Johnson

inexpensive, details, accurate, small

user manual

I bought FT Audio LW1 to replace the pre-amp section of my Yamaha receiver. LW1 is connected to Krell KSA100. Sound is much more detail and warmer. Base is also better with right cable. Sound is a lot more dynamics than before. I don't have a lot of experiences with pre-amp so I can't make any comment to compare with other products. However, I am very happy with the performance of this device. It also has 2 outputs, an option for bi-amp in future.