Thiel Owners

michael - Rob sets up PXOs for any classic Thiel back to perhaps 3.6s (mid 90s) for a reasonable fee.

guys - regarding passive preamps, there is another un-named factor. The principal load being driven by the source is the connecting cables to the next device. Some cables have high capacitive and/or inductive reactances. Some sources are not capable of driving those loads well, and their outputs become distressed, much like the power amp problem.

I would only attempt a passive preamp with short, electrically neutral interconnects between the source and passive pre and pre to power amp, since the passive pre does not buffer or isolate the source from the pre to poweramp run.

oblgny

In my attempt to advise or help another music lover Thiel owner
who is thinking about using a passive pre-amp I have offended you ,
I truly apologize , that was defiantly not my intention .
Please forgive me.

Mr. Thiel

Thank you for the additional information about interconnects ,
I have always tried to keep my interconnects as short as possible,
maybe that is one reason why a passive pre-amp works in my system,
and/or maybe it's because Cardas cables have a low capacitive and inductive resistances . 

Rob

Same in my system, I made the interconnects very short, 50cm from source to pre-amp and 90cm from pre-amp to amp, it works fine to me.I also own a McCormack TLC-1 passive/buffered pre-amp but after many comparison I ended preferring my crafted one with only one IN/OUT line, no source selector in the between,thus the signal path is the shorther as possible.
If you wish it's visible in my Vritual System I published yesterday.

I've tried passive pre-amps before, as well as running my Benchmark DAC with it's own volume control directly in to my amps.  The results have always been the same.  At first I'm captivated by sense of transparency and zero haze, grain, etc.  It really does sound more like the "straight wire with gain."   

But every time I end up noticing it's almost "too transparent."  That is, sonic images seem to be almost see-through, lacking the palbability, density, body and dynamics I get with a good pre-amp.  I also find tonality a bit more believable with a good pre-amp.

I certainly haven't tried every passive option out there, but it seems many other audiophiles have had similar experience trying to go passive.