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Review 4 of 11
Price Paid:
$500.00
from direct from PLC Consulting Co. Summary:
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. Strengths:
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. Weaknesses:
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. Similar Products Used:
This is my 1st passive pre in my system-it's the 1st one well designed enough to work with my gear.
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4.91 of 5
5 of 5
4 of 5
