In his post dated 3-22-13 in this thread Ralph provided what I consider to be both a uniquely excellent explanation and an extremely persuasive proof of his contention that a balanced interface MEETING CERTAIN DESIGN CRITERIA (which unfortunately are not met by most audiophile-oriented components) can completely eliminate interconnect cable artifacts. See also his post dated 3-28-13 in that thread, which responded to some questions I had on the issue.
Which is not to say, however, that I take an ideological position against passive preamps, or against having no preamp. As I see it, in audio there are usually multiple ways to do you know what to a feline and achieve good results, to express in a different way a point that Charles, for one, has made many times.
In my own case, fwiw, the question is moot, as I require a full function preamp. Some of the reasons for that being: I want it to be able to drive multiple outputs (both volume controlled and not volume controlled), as well as select among multiple inputs; I want to be able to mute the speakers while listening to headphones, without having to turn off the power amp; my power amp is located too far from the preamp for a passive preamp, or direct drive from many source components, to be suitable; and the output levels of some of my source components would probably be marginal without some added gain. I'd expect those kinds of practical requirements, that a goodly number of people undoubtedly still have, to be among the reasons that preamps are unlikely to go away anytime soon.
Regards,
-- Al
Which is not to say, however, that I take an ideological position against passive preamps, or against having no preamp. As I see it, in audio there are usually multiple ways to do you know what to a feline and achieve good results, to express in a different way a point that Charles, for one, has made many times.
In my own case, fwiw, the question is moot, as I require a full function preamp. Some of the reasons for that being: I want it to be able to drive multiple outputs (both volume controlled and not volume controlled), as well as select among multiple inputs; I want to be able to mute the speakers while listening to headphones, without having to turn off the power amp; my power amp is located too far from the preamp for a passive preamp, or direct drive from many source components, to be suitable; and the output levels of some of my source components would probably be marginal without some added gain. I'd expect those kinds of practical requirements, that a goodly number of people undoubtedly still have, to be among the reasons that preamps are unlikely to go away anytime soon.
Regards,
-- Al