As I sit here listening with no preamp, it seems like common sense would tell you that if a preamp alters the sound from the source in any way it’s really a processor of some type. Right?
To me this is correct, but I use the term colouration/distortions not processor.
And that why all "preamp aficionados" have different views how all of them sound, as no two sound the same, and no one sounds like the proverbial "piece of wire" like going direct does.
Also sources today and even yesterday have outputs that are just as good as most preamps, and better than some.
Here’s another little gem from the audio god himself on passives: And going direct is even easier for the source.
Nelson Pass:
Historically we have had a number of consumers concerned about input and output
impedances of equipment, but from our experience the concern is largely unjustified.
From the standpoint of input impedance, I can only say that it is a very pitiful source that
cannot come up with the 100 micro-amps of current needed to drive this input. I don’t know
of any tube circuit that doesn’t bias to at least 100 times this amount.
The output impedance needs to be low enough to drive the capacitance of a reasonably long
cable. How low does it need to be? I would say that it should be able to drive a 1000 pF
load out to 100 KHz. The worst case output impedance of the Aleph L will drive 1000 pF
with a -3dB rolloff at 225 KHz."
Cheers George