Is Pre-Amp needed

I will never use a preamp again. 

I believe the difference between those who like preamplification, vs. those who like passive, is as wide as analog vs digital, or tubes vs. ss. I have made my decision after owning some top tier preamps. My dacs drive my amplifiers beautifully, through passive units, and I simply hear more, of the recordings, then with top tier preamps in the systems. Not much more to talk about. 

lak said " Music customized to your liking ". System synergy. I said this on another thread. : " I believe an audio system, as a whole, should be able to " show forth " the recordings, in such a way, that when you are in your listening seat ( the sweet spot ), you are hearing your favorite artists and musicians, performing at their " finest ", in their chosen acoustic space, and you, are completely engulfed, and entertained, in the experience ". A final studio recording will not have a singer sound like he / she has a cold. They will record it on a day the voice is strong and competent. This is what I meant as " finest ". Imaging, spatial localization, ambience, are all being created by the recording and mastering engineers, as these characteristics are on the recordings. We all choose to hear our recordings with certain likes, wants and desires, whatever ways it gets us there. Passive, is " my way " to get their. Enjoy ! MrD.

My 2 dacs, in 2 systems, are an Adcom GDA 700, and an Audio Alchemy DDE V 3.0, both having beefed up power supplies, and a few more updates and tweeks. They are excellent in driving my passive units, with no loss of anything. I still own a dozen or so  power amps, and they all work great.