Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
This is available in kit or fully built form. I built mine from the kit and made some changes to the design. I customized the design of mine a bit to match my system. The parts quality is excellent, and the sound quality is better than any active preamp (tube or transistor) I've ever heard at any price. Eliminating an active preamp -- even a very good one -- provides a crystal clear, yet liquid smooth sound that I've only ever heard in live music. It provides sound quality in a whole different league, impossible with any active design, and at a small fraction of the price. The drawback is that your system must be suited for a passive. Typically, this means solid state sources with low output impedances that don't mind driving an 8k load. Remember a 10k passive attenuator becomes around 9k with the amp's input impedance, and around 8k with a tape loop. 20k, 50k and other versions of the attenuator are available for sources that want a higher load impedance. The kit, as initially delivered, was incomplete (missing parts) but Ron Welborne's prompt and thorough support resolved this very quickly. He checks both phone and email frequently and responds very quickly. The grounding design was "questionable" but this is what kits and DIY is all about: it was very easy to redesign the grounding. Also, more optimal resistor values could have been chosen for the attenuators, so I redesigned this too, selecting my own resistors and ordering them from Ron. At 20 cents each it's a very cheap and effective customization.

Strengths:
sound quality that is unmatched at any price

Weaknesses:
system must be suited for a passive: solid state sources low output impedances amp with high input impedance

Similar Products Used:
Rotel, Adcom, Conrad Johnson, many others