The future of preamps

Phusis,
I make the assumption we (or most) rely on what's heard to form an impression. As we are all different there'll be varying conclusions and choices made. My experience happened to be very similar to what Jon had written and I wanted to respond. You have your own experiences to share and certainly others can relate to you and your outcomes as well.

What I described has absolutely nothing to do with you preferences and the converse is true, they're completely independent of one another. We are just two people who happened to have different views. What I wrote about
the sound of passive-direct compared to good actives is simply what I
heard. I have no problem at all with your listening encounters/ comparisons
(how could I?), we both were expressing our opinions on an open forum. There's no rule that says we must agree with each other. You've recognized what sounds preferable to your ears and I've done the same. The ultimate result is we're happy with our individual choices.
Charles,

@ Atmasphere, Hi, Thankyou so much, It's hard to find something that may work with this crazy amp I have, I never told all of you here, I have the complete owners reference and more on my amp, all the specs that Almarg stated, I have in my hand now, and alot he did not list!, Ralph, The reference says this,,Dc protective circuitry- Full powered balanced amplifiers use unobtrusive direct current {D/c} protection circuitry that strips DC from the signal without corrupting sound reproduction. Full powered Balanced amplifiers feature direct coupled circuitry from input to output. This topology eliminates all coupling capacitors from the audio signal path. coupling capacitors block damaging DC but have sonic characteristics that corrupt sound reproduction., Useing A Tube Preamplifier,The high DC output of tube preamplifiers may exceed the DC protection circuitry of full powered balanced amplifiers. Excessive DC level in a signal can damage amplifiers, speakers, or both. The coupling capacitors in full powered balanced amplifiers must be engaged when useing a tube preamplifier, the none active coupling capacitors must be inserted into the signal path before you can use the Fpb amplifier with a tube preamplifier., ok, see what I am talking about, I do have to be careful, I do not want to use the coupling caps that will degrade my performance just to use a tube pre-amp, I do know they may make some that will work without going thru this, what is your thoughts on all this info?, It's an Honor to me that you have interest in tring to resolve some issues here for me, cheers.

Hi Jon2020, Didn't I buy a cable from you?, A Taralabs cobalt power cable, I was wondering if you are the same gentleman, I am quite happy with the sale if you are the gentleman that sold me the cable?, anyway, My assesment of running a source direct to amp is good, transparency and realism was quite spectacular!, However, I agree with you, I had a Krell 300I intergrated on a second system, I put the unit on the main system before I sold it to help finance buying the Tara zero gold, I did hear more information!, I was stunned to say the least, I am assuming this was because of the gain a pre-amp has?, thou the transparency was not matched or realism, It was quite enjoyable, now the thing is, can I possibly get both without a second morgage on the house?

Hi Charles1dad, I agree with your findings, At what cost will a pre-amp give us all of what I desire?, I know they have great pre-amps out there that can do it all! I am open to opinions, Have you tried a 32 bit resolution source componet to see if it works better?

Charles1dad,

It is interesting to note that personal experience does not always go in tandem with common sense and logic which would define that the shortest simplest path should be the best.

Audio design is indeed as much an art as it is a hard science.