Thiel Owners

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.

Geeze, who is making all the posts that have to be removed?  In a Thiel owner's thread??

Audiojan. There is a demo/used Audio Reseach 75 SE for sale at music lovers San Francisco check there web site. I’ll check it out for if you want. It is a good retailer here in San Francisco.

i just sold my CS3.7 with the SS2.2vwith calibrated crossover to a long time lover of Thiel.  Hope he enjoys it.