Preamps can color sound considerably. Surprising?

both are relatively rare cases and the majority of pres between attenuated dacs and power amps add distortion and little else

@antigrunge2 
Depends on how quiet it is, but at say -40dB, I think that might be 1/100th, so if the output impedance is high, then it becomes 100x higher… flat out it should work a treat though.

Analog components have various nonlinearities that account for their signature contribution, subjectively negative or positive. Designers select from those components for desired effect and based on economics, availability, and personal biases.

Digital components add other considerations like sample rate, bit depth, jitter, latency, and perhaps most importantly, algorithmically - the software. Various codec filter algorithms have audible impacts, and when an encode using one is decided using another, the effects are quite unpredictable. Extended over the entire 'chain' from studio to master to mix to distribution, and finally to your listening room, attributing audible changes to a single item requires extraordinary diligence to eliminate confounding variables, confirmation bias, uncontrolled variables and a bunch more. 'Accuracy' is euphonia. One likes the sound, it agrees with the preconception of what something should sound like and, ipso facto, it becomes correct. Measurements, simplistic by their very nature, provide only the vaguest validation. What measurement, short of tweaking the treble tone control, accounts for the oft-used  'lifting a veil' expression of newfound system clarity. And how many veils are layered over my system in the first place? 

It's all good fun, and fascinating, in a certain way. 

while looking for a preamplifier that doesn't color the sound, I ended up with a passive solution - Big Hattor dual mono

not if you have one that's neutral.

The preamp is the heart of my system. I use a DAC with perfect measurements and class D amplifiers, on a multi-amped fully horn loaded system.

The amps by themselves sound a bit sterile, and the DAC while very good for the money doesn't add much "flesh" to the bones. The active crossover can be considered as transparent as can be.

My (vintage) preamp, on the other hand, is wonderful. It's a rather unknown model (Korn&Macway SP100) built like a high end device, and I recapped it using NOS Roederstein Gold caps in the PSU and Elna SilmicII everywhere else. It is majorly responsible for the musicality of the system. I've tried without preamp, I've tried other preamps, I keep coming back to it for its precise yet lush presentation. It's like it's holding everything together. Take it out, and the magic is gone!