Best Preamp - NO preamp... (?)

They don’t have enough gain, so they need an active pre to help the signal along.

If it goes loud enough for you, you have enough gain, a passive preamp will NOT compress the music if it’s up near full.

Quote from Nelson Pass:

We’ve got lots of gain in our electronics. More gain than some of us need or want. At least 10 db more.
Think of it this way: If you are running your volume control down around 9 o’clock, you are actually throwing away signal level so that a subsequent gain stage can make it back up.
Routinely DIYers opt to make themselves a “passive preamp” - just an input selector and a volume control.
What could be better? Hardly any noise or distortion added by these simple passive parts. No feedback, no worrying about what type of capacitors – just musical perfection.
And yet there are guys out there who don’t care for the result. “It sucks the life out of the music”, is a commonly heard refrain (really - I’m being serious here!). Maybe they are reacting psychologically to the need to turn the volume control up compared to an active preamp.

Cheer George

I am using the Townsend Allegri Passive pre. I have used Creek and Audio Synthesis before and it is considerably better. I liked it so well that I was going to become a dealer before I got sick. It has a big lead in the Colloms sound rating on the High Fi Critic site. This is avable free if you want to look. I have been reading him since the early 70s and based many of my purchases on his reviews. Many are rare or not sold here. I got my Metrum from Europe before it was avable here. I have a very good [and expensive] active pre and I am going to give to another try when I can. [ it is very heavy and I can't lift these days] 

The bad thing about no pre is that you lose the volume control as well as the switching on most amps. Also the volume control has more effect than most think. On Audio Synthesis the different models had different volume controls. Really good volume controls are expensive. I have used my passive with CJ 350, Gamut 200, and Meridan 605s. The last are my backups and still good after all these years. Not it the class of the others of course. It has worked well with all.

I got rid of my preamp years ago (DAC straight to power amp) and never looked back. 

Here is the Colloms rating. The only one almost the same was the very top ARC and it was a very little worse.
Conrad Johnson Premier 14 39
Conrad Johnson Premier 16LS 49
Conrad Johnson Premier 18 28
Conrad Johnson Sonographe fet pre 15
Conrad Johnson 18LS 30
Conrad Johnson PV10 B 28 (line)
Creek OBH -15 MM, MC phono 35, 19
Creek OBH 22 passive (load sensitive) 39
Creek OBH 21 Headphone amp 40
Cyrus Phono (PSU) 28(35)
Edge Signature one (battery) 37
Electrocompaniet EC3 18.5 MC, 22 line
Exposure MCX 98
Halcro DM10 22 disc/26line
Jadis JP 30 (original series) 14
Klyne sk6 13.5
Krell Evolution One 120
Krell Evolution 202 70
Krell KSP pre 21
Krell KRC-2 22.5
Krell KCT 28 28
Krell KPS 28 35
Lehmann Audio Silver Cube 26
LINN Uphorik 98
Mark Levinson No 38s 33
Mark Levinson ML 26 20.5
Musical Fidelity MVX pre 12
Musical Fidelity MVT 13.5
Music First Reference Bal/SE TFR 180
Myryad MP 100 pre 15
Naim Prefix mc phono 45
Naim Superline mc phono- Hi-Cap 120
Naim Superlinemc phono Supercap, Supercap DR 145, 190
Pink Triangle PIP pre 18
Plinius Koru 15 MM/MC
Pro-ject Tube Box SE II Phono MC, MM 45,45
PS Audio GCPH 15
Roksan Platinum Phono Reference DXP SE 45
Roksan Platinum PR15B 20
Stevens and Billington transformer passive 33
Tag McLaren DPA 32 19
Thrax Dionysus 135
Thrax Orpheus 225
Townshend Allegri autotransformer 230
Townshend Glastonbury Pre 1 SE AutoTFR 195
Trichord Dino Mk2 MC phono 29 std supply, 33 NC supply
Van Den Hul Grail MC phono 65
XTC PRE II 80 (line)
YBA Pre 1 15.5
- See more at: http://www.hificritic.com/preamplifiers-and-phono-stages.html#sthash.gh4VAjUt.dpuf