Preamps waste of money?

Grannyring, my bad. It's hard to interpret the intent of some posts. I enjoyed reading your Dude thread.

Devilboy, we have similar experience with these passives. I have to admit though in my system the stepped attenuator in the input of the amp was hands down better than the external passives.

I've just been through this process myself. I'm a great fan of TVC passives as they really provide a detailed uncoloured sound for a relatively small amount of money. I've used a SAC TVC, briefly used a Music First Mk II and recently a StereoKnight Silverstone B&R. The choice seems to be between detail or energy until you reach a particular quality point. Unfortunately my experience is that this is quite expensive. I finally have found the detail that I have had from the StereoKnight or Music First but with the power and control of an active. It has cost me though.

I've been curious about many aspects of this thread for some time. I use a NAD M51 DAC as a source and preamp straight to my SS amp through balanced interconnects. I've tried using an active SS preamp before but I always loose something in the process and i end up removing the active preamp. I'm intrigued what a tubed preamp such as something from Balanced could contribute to the system since it accepts XLR inputs and outputs. The mix of SS and Tube gear is said to work well with my Thiels. However I can't get over the thought that when it comes to gear less is more and why would adding something else in the chain of information make it better and not worse. It would seem the more components added In the signals line the more the original signal is changed. For this reason passive preamps intrigue me too since it would seem they would render less change to the signal than an active preamps. But I'm not an electrical engineer, so take my ramblings as such.

Last lemming,
I share the same philosophy and mind set for simplicity. But only to the point where this route does`nt begin to compromise or subtract from the music.

Not every active preamp is good and some of the better passives I`d prefer.However once you find a'very good' active preamp it delivers more of the complete music signal(dynamics,weight,nuance,scale etc.)The overall effect is more emotion, soul and involvement(visceral) just my own experience.

It`d be good if you could compare these different appraoches and hear for youself(I know, easier said than done).For me music is about connecting emotionally rather the than cool detachment and observation aspect.I enjoy my current system`s music reproduction so much that I seldom watch the TV any more.I just love the beauty of music.
Regards,