Do preamps have a material affect on high level sources?

george, fair point. I should have said "pushing passive preamps" instead of "pushing his own passive preamps". But in your case that makes no difference. Either way, your remark to Ralph was completely unnecessary.  

kalali, you really are a very sensitive person. You comment on so many issues and so many remarks made by posters, and you seem to take things quite personally. Did you have a poor childhood ? Just sayin'. As far as the necessity of a preamp, it would be " system matching " dependent.  No hard feelings here. Enjoy ! MrD/

kalali
george, fair point. I should have said "pushing passive preamps" instead of "pushing his own passive preamps". But in your case that makes no difference.

Again thank you again for the semi plug.
And what’s wrong with "pushing passive preamps" they are the next best to going direct for transparency and dynamics, if the gain and impedance allows them, and in most cases they do, they are more transparent, more dynamic and less colored than an active preamp who's gain these days is not needed. 

There's been a heap of threads on similar subject. So reading this I again re-visited Direct vs. Active Pre-Amp.


As in all my previous findings a Quality Active Pre-Amp wins. Going Direct loses the emotion, soul, dimensionality, involvement, of the music. In fact I found going Direct became fatiguing after five minutes or so. A Quality Active Pre gets you closer to a Live Musical Experience.

I've done this experiment on numerous occasions over the years. Tube, Hybrid, Solid State, XLR, RCA, Active/Passive Speakers. Results have all been the same.

I've had a number of musical Pals place a Quality Active Pre. instead of Direct or Poor Quality Pre., on my recommendation. All have been gobsmacked at the Improvement in Musical Enjoyment.

I have had the opposite experience as initforthemusic. I hear more emotion, more soul, more dimensionality, more involvement, of my music. The start and stop of the musicianship ( prat ) has never been better. No more editorializing, no more coloration, so much more detail, in every category. Many people are afraid to give up their tried and true preamps. For $46., shipped to you from a California warehouse, is a single, one in, one out passive device by Douk Audio ( China manufactured ), an Ebay seller. After running my Luminous for about a year now, I wanted a passive unit for a 2nd system. This is an incredible little piece of kit ( superior, imo, to the Schiit SYS, in SQ ( which is good, as I borrowed one for a weekend ), providing you can live with one in and one out. An inexpensive way to try passive. I realize system matching is important. But my 3 dacs, several tuners and other sources all drive my many amplifiers I have, and my systems sound more " live " than ever. Enjoy ! MrD.