Any thoughts on removing a preamp from your system

"Trust your own ears."

No doubt that is the main key, but I also find that most things that really matter in good sound can be explained at least in theory. WHether the theory is then supported by the facts during listening or not is another story.

That's how science works without in fact ever 100% proving anything. Without theory or hypotheses at a minimum, there can be no roadmap for making informed decisions. Chaos would rule. Chaos is not a very efficient mechanism for getting anywhere. :^)

Jaxwired,
Try Mytek 192 DAC-Preamp which is mostly DAC.
It's the best volume control I've ever used. It combines advantages of passive and active amplification. If your amp is sensitive, you can adjust gain to unity to have maximum transparency. You can also boost it to have better dynamics and bass control.
Prior to that I used DIY passive pre, Classe, Bryston and McCormack preamplification. In all cases I liked minimal preamplification gain figuring that minimalistic preamp is just as good as passive but better.

In my second system (the one in the vertical cabinets in my system photos), I have 6 sources:

1) phono
2) Squeezebox Touch
3) DVD
4) tuner
5) VHS tape
6) cable box

The last 4 feed into an old Radio Shack/Realistic unpowered "passive" 4 source switching box gadget I have had for years. This was a $20-$30 gadget as I recall many years back.

Then the "passive" source switching device runs into tape in on an old NAD 7020 receiver that I use for pre-amp only that feeds the TAD Hibachi monoblocks that drive my smaller OHM speakers and my Stax phones.

SB Touch runs direct into the NADs aux input and phono to NAD phono input.

This works quite well. None of the sources I am feeding into the passive Realistic box are SOTA certainly, but the performance is quite suitable. I have heard these devices running directly as well in the past, and if there is a difference, it does not seem to matter much.

That makes me think a true good quality passive pre-amp with a good quality volume control might work quite well. Definitely something worth considering if needed.

Whenever Al chimes in, i just skip to the bottom of his post and try to understand his conclusion. I thought I was somewhat smart until I started coming around here, haha!

I really love my Lightspeed Attenuator. It definately removed that last layer of haze I had at the time. I think it has incredible transparency and dynamics and it was $500. I think you'd have to spend 3 to 4 times that much to even begin to make an improvement, probably at the cost of some transparency.