Recommended Preamp for pairing an Adcom 555II Amp and Theil CS 3.5 speakers

I have tried the $49 Schiit Sys between my CD player and 555 and the sound quality was completely lifeless and flat as compared with my Adcom preamp and nowhere near the sound quality when I experimented with the tube preamp in there. The volume control on the Sys is also marginal at best. But it's definitely worth the $49 price when used as an input selector.

iowanna33  This all depends if you want the source to be transparent or you want to colour the sound, which a tube pre will do.

If you want to have it all, get the Freya and you have passive, solid state, and tube that you can change on the fly while listening, all with little or no gain, which in your case you don't need. Many here and on other forums that have bought it prefer the passive mode after they've lived with it for a while.
  
And in it you have the best volume control with the Freya which is 128 position switched relay volume control, better than any rotary volume pot, and it's all remote controlled, 3 x inputs, 2 x outputs all RCA or XLR. 
http://www.schiit.com/products/freya only $699 and you can send it back if not happy, win, win. 

Cheers George  

iowanna33 Here is a 6 page discussion on the sound of the Freya and do a bit of tube rolling in Australia.

https://www.stereo.net.au/forums/topic/116843-schiit-new-preamp-freya/

Cheers George

I have a pair of 555 Mk2's driving a pair of Kef 107's and I use a Cary SLP03 with them. I replaced an Adcom GTP760 with the Cary and there's just no going back. You can find this pre amp for around $1000.

hifiman5
that the drive

Please explain to all here, what the difference is of the "drive" to the poweramp in electronic terms, whether it’s driven from a preamp output or from the sources output. when voltage output is sufficient enough for the poweramp to be clipped and impedance is a match is fine.

Nelson Pass:
"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."

Cheers George