After advice from some guys on here that used to be on the Hifi Choice forum I got my quad 303 upgraded by net audio.

Current system:
Cyrus CD8x, Quad 33 (Dada mods), Quad 303 (full net audio upgrade), Mission 773e speakers. Ixos cables.
Music:
I love a broad spectrum eclectic music, especially classical music(except classical era) and 70s rock but the grail for me is to have a system that does choral music well in big acoustics (I was a chorister in St Pauls).

I'm wondering whether I can get any improvements over the quad 33, and am thinking about the passive route. Does anyone have any experience of this, or give any advice?

I decided to try to simulate a passive pre by using an inline attenuator by modding an IXOS cable with 20kOhm resistors. This was not nearly enough as the climax of the four last songs donated a decent dose of distortion. I hadn't realised it was so loud, perhaps because having missed out the quad 33 pre, the gained clarity, openness and feeling of presence, was extraordinary, it never felt harshly loud. I'm now at 160kOhmsish and that is appropriate for a sunday morning listening level in a block of flats, though Dieskau just had one small brief bit of distortion in a loud bit of the Dichterliebe.

Is a passive pre a viable option in my system? If it is, what max impedence is appropriate?! What are peoples thoughts about this kind of upgrade route? I was thinking of net audio or glass house pres. What about alternatives? Is distortion a problem with this kind of set up?

Cheers for any thoughts!

Jamie

Hello and welcome to the forum, I can't be much help as I don't know your gear, but what about Music First Audio?

Cheers for the welcome; interesting forum, with lots of interesting stuff to read!

I'm afraid the music first audio passive is well out my current budget! I've gone down the 33 and 303 modding routes before because of my tight budget, but am pretty happy with what i'm now hearing! (JSBach - the issues with the harsh treble are gone, and the big choral acoustic stuff is improved, but now instead of having that funny treble distortion I used to have with the trebles, they've dropped back in the mix, being quieter than the other voices, but pleasantly clear).

I'm currently just using Kiwame resistors in my IXOS cables and I have one cable with a resistance for more modern recordings the current recording obsession for loudness and compression, and one cable at lower resistance for the older classical stuff I listen to. These cables are thus like a passive pre with only 2 volume points, and I like the improvement in sound i've got from missing out the 33. However, it rather fiddly and exasperating having to constantly switch between two cables, and of course the dynamics vary from recording to recording, so while the level is right for some its not for others!

I just don't know about passive pres in general, whats good, whats not, whether I could be better off with a valve pre, which is probably well out of my kind of shoe-string budget. I tried emailing about the quad 303 mod and what passive might be appropriate, if at all. Thus far I haven't had an answer, and I thought you guys might be able to help, but I might try him again.

Just as an experiment can you try something like the little Creek passive pre? it was very affordable when it came out but I don't know if it's still made and in production, but something like that may be ideal to give you some ideas to work from.

Well, yes, the Creek obh-22 is one thing i've been considering. That and a net-audio or glasshouse stepped attenuator based passive pre kit (vs the creek which is a sliding potentiometer). The creek obh-22 has input impedence of >20 kOhms and output of 0 to 20 kOhms. The other two I mention I can chose the max impedence of the stepped attenuator.