most cheap passives suck. Really good shunt resistor ones are ok, but still have a sound signature you have to like. Then there are transformer based ones, nice!
@Cspirou Emotiva was the first thing that came to mind but they don't make them anymore. Saw the one you listed on amazon. I have a bizarre setup which makes it difficult. I have two speakers with an active sub. The sub passes the signal to the speakers untouched but as a dsp chip for other functions.
It takes +7 dbu or +22dbu, when the Yggdrasil balanced outputs like 14.6 dbu, which make it either too sensitive and overloads, or makes it too insensitive. Soekris had no problems with its digital preamp, but I can't go back after listening to the Yggdrasil.
@Elnrik I'm hestitant with the effects that the jotunheim might have on the sound. maybe it would be best to go get a saga but then I wouldn't be taking advantage of the balanced outputs. Not looking for big tube/transformer ones. I'm looking for something like the sys just to attentuate the signal without bitstripping digitally.
Every time I have come across this issue I have considered the Goldpoint volume controls. http://www.goldpt.com Not cheap though. It would be more of a ‘do once and do right’ decision.
With Yggdrasil behind it the GoldPoint seems a worthy investment. Might want to get a 1-in-2-out with a switch to route Yggdrasil to two devices. http://www.goldpt.com/sa2x.html
https://khozmo.com/balanced_stereo.html I have the SE one and it's excellent. If I didn't need the buffer for my phono pre, I wouldn't have bought the Saga. You don't need the upgraded resistors. I believe you can get it in ladder, series, or shunt. I have the series.
I purchased this passive and it's quite fine with balanced connections to the Denafrip Ares. The finish is actually pretty impressive and looks a lot better than the picture. especially the volume knob.
Sound wise it sounds equally balanced in both channels and it seems linear in increments of the knob even at low volumes. I would not know how someone could tell the difference between a "better" passive at least paired with my current, let alone the sounds seems unconstrained and nothing absently wrong with it.
I did major research on lower cost volume pots and a couple reviews noted issues, but no complains here.
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