I think the accurate answer is yes and no. It depends on the system, components, and match-ups. I had a Wadia 16 based system directly driving a pair of Clayton monos and Quadrature DSP-5a's which was really nice. Currently, I have a pair of Soundlab M-2's and Merlin VSM-MM's and in both cases the soundstage just doesn't seem to be anywhere near as solid and fleshed out with a direct drive vs. having a preamp in the system. Hope this helps but I really think this is purely a system dependent issue.
Best preamp is no preamp: always true?
There seems to be a school of thought that between two well-designed (read no major flaws) CDP and AMP, the best PREAMP is NO PREAMP at all (let's assume that the AMP has a sort of minimalist volume control).
Is this a solid and robust statement? What would be situations where this is not true (still no major design flaws)?
Is this a solid and robust statement? What would be situations where this is not true (still no major design flaws)?