Good switch for Stepped attentuater, Good cheap RCA jacks

[jleaman]

Re: Incremental upgrades

His advice was as follows: "You'll just spend way more money in the long run improving each piece in gradual steps than you will getting the very best you can possibly afford for each piece as you go" Of course I ignored his advice and have since replaced every piece more than once, guess what? he was right.

I built a passive pre using a solid silver switch (Schallco) and Vishay foil resistors, pure silver wire and excellent Cardas RCA jacks. I am delighted with the result and am pretty sure this piece will never need upgrading. The parts cost me $350 not counting a chassis. I bought a n inexpesive passive on the used market, gutted it and used the box, knobs, front panel etc. So I don't have a homemade look and sound close to as good as it gets.

i did this to. I was all excited about my new digital velleman Pre amp i bout it for about 700 Canadian. I got it home played with it built it improved a few things. And then one day my dad came over and listend and said WHAT THE HELL this thing sounds like JUNK. He then passed me a nice alps Pot and we built a passive control and well IT sounded WAY better than the 700$ Digital one.. lesson learned just because it has bright shiny lights and it looks nice doesnt mean it is good : O ) Since then i am still useing passive stuff. Soon to geta better control.