Preamp is in excellent condition and operates perfectly. There are just two minor cosmetic flaws, both pictured. One is a scuff mark on the top, and the other is one tiny nick on the upper edge of one side. Included are the remote (volume, source selection, and mute) and the original box. I will pay for shipping in CONUS for full price offers. I also cover PayPal fees. Ships from 98424.
What Placette preamps are known for are their 125-step attenuators using Vishay S102 resistors, providing perhaps the most transparent and distortion free sound of any preamp. This is the “active” version, a dual-mono design with completely separate power supplies, attenuators and output stages for each channel. The major differences between this and the Placette passive are 1) the dual-mono design and 2) the direct-coupled, class-A unity gain output stages. These work as a buffer that provides a constant, low output impedance and enough current to drive any load and cables of any length. My only reason for selling is that in my current set-up I need a preamp with a small amount of gain.
There are many glowing reviews of Placette preamps available via a web search, or directly from the Placette web site. Below are some excerpts from an Absolute Sound review.
Guy Hammel is a man with an obsession and a mission: the obsession with transparency: the mission to build a better volume control. "The main thing I'm trying to communicate to people is the extreme importance of the volume control." Despite two-volt outputs from CD players and DACs, the need for a preamplifier is "more related to the need for an accurate volume control. Accurate in the sense of not introducing non-linear distortions and in that it can track both channels at every possible volume setting, and still keep both right and left channels at exactly the same level."
Once the basics of circuitry have been addressed, volume pots, Hammel believes, are the primary culprits behind sonic degradation in most electronics.
Vishay is a manufacturer of high-quality electronic parts and components, among them the S102 bulk metal-foil resistor that, according the Hammel, "presents an extremely low inductance load at audio frequencies and offers the easiest possible load that a source can ever drive into. The noise that is present in all resistors is very near the theoretical limit with Vishays, 20 to 40 dB below other types.
The unit is direct-coupled (no output capacitors are employed) and has OFC wire in all signal paths. It is dual-mono almost with a vengeance: separate power supplies for each channel; left and right inputs and outputs on opposite sides of the chassis in a mirror-image array; relay switching to obviate the need for routing the signals through a large switch-assembly. There are additional power supplies for the remote receiver and for the control system. With an output impedance of 10 ohms at most audio frequencies, the Placette can drive any power amplifier with ease (including two at once) and is said to be essentially immune to the effects of any practical cable length (the longest Hammel has used for far is 30 meters!).
There are two main outputs, one pair of tape outputs, and six high-level inputs. The CD input and one of the main outputs come wired with OFC jacks. The remote control is an after-market Sony unit that, while not especially high-tech looking, is both functional and powerful.
So what does this thing sound like? To be brief, under circumstances that I can control or am otherwise familiar with, I haven't heard a better preamplifier than the Placette. Whether its transparency is owing to the 50 Vishay resistors, the unique volume configuration, the extra mechanical damping, or all of these, I cannot say. It's a cliché to say that veils are lifted, but they really are lifted.
