The future of preamps


I still use one, but I wonder if their days are numbered. To those who have removed the preamp from their system, have there been any regrets? Anyone gone back to using a preamp after having removed it?
psag
Grannyring,
I know you've tried various configurations of direct source-amplifier and also passive components. It appears your ears lead you back to quality active line stages. You must have recognized that something vital was missing musically/emotionally without their presence.
Charles,
I just shelfed a Mid range Pioneer Reciever and designed built my own Pre Amp, I could not be more tickled with the dynamics and detail I gained.
@ Atmasphere, Hi, Who told you that 4 volts was to much for an amplifier?,, LOL!, Nearly all pre-amps output to an amp is way more than 4-volts, an example of what I am saying is, My krell 700cx amplifier min sensativity is 3.5 volts input, in other words, if you do not have atleast the 3.5 volts, the amp is not being driven correctly, the krell 700 cx amp input max is 18 volts!, then you have every krell pre-amp ever made that puts out 8 to 12 volts to to the amps, I have personally talked to krell about this issue, they ex-plained the input specs of my amp, because I was under the impression that the 3.5 volts was max, turns out to be the minimum!, most digital cd-players and dacs do not have enough volts out-put to drive amps to their potential, and then you have bit stripping of the sound quality if you have a pure digital volume control at low volumes, on the bright side, a digital componet running direct to amp with a analog volume control, or a transformer based volume control yeilds way more transparency than most pre-amps could ever do in alot of systems, your signal does not have to go thru another chip board, there is some pre-amps out there that can give you all that you want for sound, very few can surpass running direct to amp, the pre-amps that can are very exspensive!, cheers.