new shiny pot-in-a-box

I don’t know how the Chinese can do it for the money. I used to hate seeing those Maplin project boxes so it’s Greta to see some better stuff coming to DIYers.

Well it wont win any awards but its built and it works... its prettier than the grey plastic affair, not had chance to try a comparison yet though so i dont know if the cheap DACT matches the real thing





Ive not star-earthed this one to the chassis. Each of the grey cables has 2 channels and a shield, this time i've connected the shield to the earth at the plug and the ground at the pot, both grounds are connected so all the grounds are linked at the pot, but not to the chassis.  We'll see if it works with the valve amps, but it was fine in a quick trial in front of my Rotel integrated, no obvious hum and both channels worked.

I had to enlarge the hole for the volume pot on the outside of the case so I could get the nut on, the thread wasn't as long as the eBay posting made out and it didn't show beyond the front plate.  Luckily the knob covers it up, even though it was neater than I feared.

Well at least you’re ahead of anyone who hasn’t made anything of their own. I hope it brings many happy hours of listening.

As long as your power amp is fully compatible with your passive I don't think the DCB1 would be better.

Do you find the sound is a bit soft, just very slightly? Especially with cymbals and high hats lacking just a bit of metallic sparkle? That's what I had with a passive into the Krell. Not quite compatible - still a good sound but not quite there. Adding the buffer sorted it even though there is still zero gain.

What active pre do you have?

The DCB1 really gives the best of both worlds imo. Let's be honest, for the money, you can build one fairly cheaply to try and then upscale the build if you feel it has the potential to be a great fit in your system.

I have a "pot in the box" on the desk to build, very similar to yours. I am building it for the second system as a stop gap. I'll be building another DCB1 but I'm not in a rush to do so. I'd give the DCB1 a go, you've nothing to lose.

A passive used with a buffer is more or less an active pre-amp stage.


Maybe something like the FX Audio Tube-01 valve pre-amp/buffer from China could be fun with your HH power amp?

I've got one and it sounds damn good for the pocket money price. Only one input though.

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FX-AUDIO-TUBE-01-bile-preamp-tube-amplifier-preamp-bile-buffer-6J1-HIFI-MO/152647978361?hash=item238a874d79:g:dxoAAOSwiYlaPG4V

No, they don't show for me either, just a 'no entry' sign. 


if the Rotel power amp will work with a passive then it will work with the DCB1 and possibly be better so worth  try. 

I don't agree that the DCB1 is the same as an active, because it has no gain. So despite having a buffer it will not go loud enough into some power amps, this is not the case with an active pre-amp. 

I tried something similar to that a few years back. It didnt seem to help. I also tried an MF buffer which made a difference but i couldn't say if it was better or worse. In theory, nothing should be able to improve on a single input passive, after all you just attenuate the signal with the best attenuator you can then pass it on unmolested...

Are the photos working now? I can see them on the PC, but not on the phone, I wonder if the PC has them cached?

Absolutely right but some say that impedance matching matters with solid state power amps (but not with valve amps as they have very high input impedance).

I was using an NVA P90SA with is arguably as good a passive as you will find and has none of the issues I described when used with an NVA solid state power amp which is of course optimised for it, but the DCB1 (when it is working!) is a big improvement over the passive with the Krell. 

Me too. Story of my life mate.

Proper Tannoys and a proper TEAC. Very nice.

Link worked for me, thanks.

Does that mean the cheapie is a real bargain? Looks that way to me.