The Best Preamp is no Preamp?

I just re-read the post and realized the OP was using a damn AVR as a preamp.  And not just any AVR, but a Marantz AVR which, IME is one of the most veiled and colored AVRs out there.  So no wonder when the OP heard the detail and transparency of going direct to the amp he found it revelatory.  My advice would be to demo some good stereo preamps and see if they improve things further — my experience is likely they will.  Also, at some point gotta upgrade from those Emotiva  amps, which aren’t worthy of a good stereo pre IMHO.  My $0.02 FWIW. 

Yeah I missed that too.

After purchasing the Lumin X1, I realized how much cleaner, open and dynamic the sound can be without a preamp.

I ended up selling my Ayre KX-20 preamp along with all the extra cables, footers and streamlined my system.

ozzy

I have to agree with ghdprentice and phantom_av: the vast majority of the time, a great (tube) pre-amp is essential.

It really depends on what you have. We have tried to forego a pre-amp and go direct from Streamer (Linn Selekt DSM w/Kalayst DAC) to our Pass Labs monos. And while there were gains in resolution, it was not the type of resolution you want to actually LISTEN to--at least for more than a song or two.

The tube pre-amp gives us all the resolution of the direct method--that is: everything we heard going direct was there with the pre-amp. But here's the the trick: it was the pre-amp's arrangement and emphases of the frequencies and detail that made it both (audiophile-terminology alert!) musical/dynamic and cohesive (properly packaged with sounds in proper relation to each other).

Perhaps if we had the MSB Select or dCS Vivaldi+, we would have different results. But I really do not think so.

The gains in going direct are unbridled detail. But is that what audio systems are designed to do? Maybe a stethoscope is. But a MUSIC system is supposed to trick our brains into believing (coupled with our willing disbelief) that we are sitting I front of the live performance.

And that requires a tonal and dimensional consideration that a direct connection is usually incapable of delivering.

I'm feeding a CD player directly into my Sophia EL 34. Anything else comes in on an "Aux" input. It sounds glorious.