Best Preamp - NO preamp... (?)

It's been  that way 20 years ago for me and it's probably the same for many today. A DAC ( or CD player) directly into a power amp is the best route. People buying new DAC's today should look for the best one they can afford and make sure it has a simple gain attenuators on it and correct matching ( sensitivity) to your amplifier; case closed!

Tomcy6,
Agree! In theory "less parts" should equal better sound. In reality it doesn't always work out that way. Must be determined individually case by case.
An absolute "case closed" rarely if ever applies to audio/sound quality issues.
Charles,

For me... bypassing the preamp has always been my "sanity check" for what the preamp is really doing, or not doing for me.  I've never heard a preamp be MORE transparent than NO preamp.... but it often adds a little something here or there that is desirable..... but of course it's still a necessary part of the system.   So you just gotta find one that has colorations that YOU like or that work in your system.   To this day.... I still have not found an AV pre/pro that I like better than my old Anthem AVM-20 for it's analog pass-through.  I've tried 4 different $2-3k pre-pros whose analog performance was terrible..... just to convince myself that i was not crazy.... I plugged my Oppo blu-ray directly into my amp.. and it sounds GREAT...... therefore.... I know for a fact that the analog pass through of the new pre-pro sucks.  My Anthem is not perfect... but it does sound very good.

Each to their own, it depends on you ears, your pre amp. Some preamps are great others disappointing. I use a number of different ones in different systems. My Yamaha c2a is an example of a good preamp. It's fast yet has a degree of warmth and solidly .  System component matching has lots to do with results too- some good components just don't get on sonically yet others  do. Cables can be another question - just be careful handling them. 

Passives of good quality are now being touted as being as good as very expensive active preamps if not better. Taking it one step further if your amp has sufficient gain, going direct can be surprisingly good but as you mentioned, you lose the ability to switch between components The best thing to do is experiment as you're doing and as suggested above, go with what sounds best to your ears