cdp to amp

The plus is a simpler signal path and perhaps(?) less expense. The minus is less choices, flexibilty and perhaps greater expense and human effort to make it work well.

i thought i'd love running direct from my wadia 860x to my vac 70/70. but after listening, i preferred using the pre-outs on my VTL integrated (basically the equivalent of a vtl 2.5 pre). the wadia direct seemed way too lean in my system. the vtl (maybe because of the NOS tubes i was using?) added body, dynamics, palpability. not what i expected at all.

it must be system dependent. maybe because my system is on the verge of lean anyway (martin logans, silver interconnects), i dunno. just what i heard.

I disagree with the above poster about the negatives of passive preamps. He has not tried the Placette with its Vishay resistors. In my system: Accuphase CDP into a Sonic Frontier Power 2, the Placette did enhance the transparency and had no effect on the dynamics. In fact, the upper frequency clarity seemed to enhance the dynamics. Good luck with you choice.

Placette's are some of the best Passives of what I have read.The person must take into consideration what he has in his system to make it work optimally to get the bast results.
There can be a slight loss in dynamics ,but the gains in transparency far outweigh the losses.
Like I stated the system as a whole have to taken into consideration,but I would much rather go with a Passive than CD Direct in any case.The Digital Vol. Controller's are not as good as standard Pots.

I run my Quad 99 cd-p direct into a Music Reference RM9 MKII and it has weight and dynamics for days.I think it is dependent on the cd-p and amplifier matchup.Maybe I just lucked out ,but I will gladly put it up against any cd,preamp,amp combo anyday.I have tried a preamp and there was no loss in anything.So I will keep it simple.This player was just reviewed by Hi-Fi News in Jan and has already been voted by the reviewer the cd player of the year for 2003!