DCS Puccini into Lamm M 1.2 w/o preamp?

I had a dcs puccini into Lamm M1.2 w/o preamp, and now into Lamm ML2.1 w/o preamp - I also tried it with the L2 and the LL2.1.
Lack of funds prevented me from buying either preamp.
I cannot explain it but to my ears the addition of a lamm preamp made me realize what I was missing the direct route - re rtn's comments above.
I feel that this whole story of driving direct amps with cd players with built in volume controls is more of a marketing ploy in order to entice you to buy a more expensive cd player thinking you wont need a preamp.

Thank you for all the helpful posts here. In the end I decided to buy a pair of Pass XA 100.5 new instead of going with a used Lamm M1.2 (here in Italy the importer asks for a prohibitive price of € 29.000 so buying a new pair wasn't really an option). Yesterday I picked up the Pass and plugged them into DCS. I cannot comment on the sound with or without pre as I traded my ARC Referernce 3 for the Pass. I'm already completely happy with the sound (compared to the old setup with ARC Ref3 and Parasound Halo JC1) noticing a big improvement in terms of musical fluidity, texture, coherence and bottom weight (although the Parasound had a more defined, punchy bass). I'm using the 2V output of the DCS and did not recognize any loss of detail at lower listening levels (normally the volume of the DCS is at -25db to -30 db).

However, I'll give it a try with a goob pre like the ARC Ref 5 or the Pass XP 20.

Congratulations. You got a great amp.

If you think it sounds good now, wait for around 200 hours. It should sound noticably better each day.

Mluding - I'm also running Puccini direct to my Pass XA-30.5 now.

FYI - I sold my 3-months old Lamms M1.2 for 14k euro 3 years back ... so the price you mentioned is really VERY high.

Elberoth, the price I mentioned was for a pair of NEW Lamm M 1.2. For the pair of used Lamms I had to pay 11-12k Euro.

It seems that you're changing system quite often. I can still see a very nice ARC Setup in your profil. Does the Pass have enough power to drive the Sophias?