Best Preamp - NO preamp... (?)

ami OP
Hi George,
I'm very impressed with your candor:

Thanks ami, just telling it like it is.
On a side note, there is just too much voodoo and shilling that goes unmoderated in these forums, maybe I'm just getting crotchety in my mature age.

Cheers George

I have tried many passive, direct dac, and active preamp,and vacuum tubes do
Sound more realistic and natural per dollar then a solid state model ,there too there are exceptions if you gave the $$.vacuum tubes give you more bang for the buck.
Active gain stage on a good quality preamp over  $3k has better detail and 
Dynamic range when the volume goes up the whole performance should stay rock steady. I have listened to transformer based passive preamps that are very good 
Like U.K based Billington and Steven's very good but over $4k.
Having the ability to operate a audio store while in Europe and play with all the options was very interesting. I have yet to hear a direct feed from digital converter
That has the slam and control as with a quality preamplifier, DCS Edgar another exception great build and sound quality but pricy.

Just to clarify.   I have heard it explained that The volume control in the Ps audio DS (I'm a dealer) is digital up until 50 - from 50 to 100 it is analog.  as Robert Deuch found it sounds fantastic and close in sound to the Cat preamp.   Well as good as the DS is - the reports from Paul at ps audio is that the BHK preamp is significantly better in all respects.   he's a straight shooter and these days won't release a product that doesn't live up to his expectations.   He spent years developing a hypex based amp with custom front end, and scraped it because there were better out there. 
audio doesn't always make sense.  One would think less parts means better sound but it doesn't always.  
Bascom king who measures electronics for a magazine once tested a ss amp from a DAC manufacturer that measured much lower in distortion than any other - but it didn't sound good.  
Paul McGowan was against using a tube input and in fact planned to offer a solid state input and and tube as well (ss on a tube socket) but once he heard the tube input he had to throw out his preconceptions and just build his new amp with tube input only.  

I prefer no preamp. MSB Analog DAC direct to Pass Labs amp. Previously i had Wadia 521 DAC direct to amp. I tried a few notable preamps which robbed the sound of pinpoint imaging and timbral purity.  The MSB volume control is better than the Wadia. With the Wadia the volume control needed to be above 67. I could adjust the output gain on the Wadia to match the amp in order to use volume control from 67 to 100.     The MSB has high resolution from very low volume. 

At the advice of my most experienced audiophile friend, I bypassed the preamp about a month ago, and I'm going directly into a power amp from my Benchmark DAC2.  It's sounding wonderful, and I don't know why I'd want to add anything else to the chain. I'm not even going to buy the preamp that goes with the amp, even though I can get a good price on it.