THE AUDIO ASYLUM FORUM TYPE "PLACETTE" IN THE SEARCH BOX

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Placette Audio Preamplifier: Transparency, Transparency, Transparency

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." If this seems a Quixotic mission at the time when the preamplifier as a component has all but disappeared from some systems, Hammel is quick to point out that 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. For several years, the material implementation of Hammel's mission has been a line of preamplifiers called Placette, that has acquired a substantial following made all the more impressive considering that in the beginning his advertising was small-ad only and his products had received no reviews. Placette's high reputation has been made almost entirely by word of mouth, through customers who've taken Hammel up on his 30-day, money-back guarantee home-trial, and elected to keep the product.

The line numbers three preamplifiers: a single-input, passive version Neil Gader reviewed in Issue 119, a three-input alternative of the same, and a fully active version¹. All are built around Vishay resistors, which Hammel advocates. 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."²

The fully active Placette under consideration here employs a total of 50 Vishay resistors, 22 of which are used in the Class A amplification stages that make up the heart of each Placette preamplifier (it generates enough power to qualify as a small power amplifier, which, by the inclusion of a head-phone jack, it in effect is).³ 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!).

At $4,000 the Placette is not inexpensive, but Hammel points out that no other preamplifier uses parts as expensive as his. Every Placette is hand-built and tested: "I buy Vishay resistors in batches of 13, enough to build as many volume pots. Then it takes one person two weeks to hand-trim the resistors for each batch." A standard Placette consists of two main outputs, one pair of tape outputs, and six high-level inputs.⁴ The CD input and one of the main outputs come wired with OFC jacks. The stock unit is single-ended because Hammel believes there is absolutely no practical benefit to balanced configurations. The remote control is an after-market Sony unit that, while not especially high-tech looking, is both functional and powerful (I had no trouble operating the preamp at any reasonable distance and angle).

Because each Placette is handmade, Hammel can offer a number of custom options. Those who feel strongly about balanced Placette at a hefty 1.8 times the standard cost (it gets you a true balanced circuit, not the adapter-behind-an-XLR-connector that is often billed as balanced). Though there is no balance control - "once you have a volume control that tracks this accurately, you don't need one," he says - he can modify the remote to provide one; ditto for mono selection. For an additional $40 a pair, any additional jacks can be OFC.

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¹  Hammel gives full list-price credit on either of the passive units, assuming they're in unblemished condition, in a trade-up toward the flagship model.
²  For more information visit Vishay's website at www.vishay.com
³  There are few better ways to drive headphones than though a Placette.
⁴  One of these is designated "phono", but for convenience of nomenclature only; it's really a high-level input.

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