CD player straight into amps?

With my Raysonic CD128, my one experience running it into a passive linestage was pretty disconcerting. Sounded thin and threadbare, very much unlike the way the Raysonic should sound.

I have a dCS P8i that I run (balanced) directly into a pair of BAT VK-120s (which I've modified quite a bit). I tried seven line stage preamps that ranged in price from $8k to $17k, but found that the sound was better in every situation, in varying degrees, without a preamp.

The P8i has a digital volume control, which controls volume by shaving off bits. On paper, this is a bad idea. But my own listening showed that the addition of the preamp compromised the sound more than the digital volume control did.

This may be largely due to the extremely low Zout of the P8i (less than 1ohm) AND the very high Zin of the VK-120s (about 220kohms).

In short, give it a try! It may surprise you quite a bit.

Absolutely! Wadia 27ix into McIntosh MC 2000.
I have an Audio Research SP 14 pre and a Burmester 808 pre. Both change the sound accordingly but don't improve it really. The best pre is no pre!

To Preamp or not , that is the question.

I am running my APL 3910 direct to my Pass Labs Amp via balanced interconnects.
There have been several versions of this APL unit, the one I have has a deep defined bottom end. Tvad, no way would I call it thin.

I have tried several Preamps , thinking perhaps they would provide extra gain and that would result in improvement.
But, they all degraded the sound quality.

My opinion is that each designed unit probably tackles the volumne control in different ways, so it really depends on the unit.