What you are seeing here is the creme de la creme model in the Passion lineup. It starts off with the regular Passion followed by the Passion Signature and finally, the top dog, the Passion Altius (which on its own, is a limited edition offering). You can read more about the technical aspects of each model on their website so we will just dive into the musicality of this preamp. We had this paired with Viva’s Aurora 845 monoblocks (also for sale in a separate listing) and the Passion Altius could not be a better match. The music took on a life of its own. Always engaging and luring you into it. The minimalist design of the preamp is audibly evident when you hear the purity of its presentation. We have had many favorites before, like Audio Research’s Reference 3 and 5 preamps, VAC’s Renaissance Signature MKII, Burmester’s 808 etc but the Passion Altius carves a special path in its own direction in high end audio. Very few tube preamps has this ability to bring out so much emotion to the music. Some do it with a lot of engineering going into its design but the Passion Altius does it with simplicity and cost-no-object parts. This particular unit is the fully balanced version with the optional $2,000 remote control feature. Black leather clads the outside of the preamp and the two knobs on the face controls the volume and input selection. Pure and simple. Current tubes on it are two E80CC tubes.
Cosmetically, the unit looks very good. Some very minor scuff marks but nothing major. Original flight case is included and will be additionally boxed for safe shipping.
