Recently, I was in a very similar situation. I was looking for a nice pre amp, but actually ended up buying a Placette passive volume control - which will arrive sometime this week. Before jumping at the Placette, I was doing some extensive research here on Audiogon and especially on the Audio Asylum web site, where you can find a lot of information about what a passive pre amp will do (or better: will NOT do) to your music. In general, passive pre amps require a reasonable output voltage from the source together with low output impedance. The power amp, on the other hand, should have a high input impedance, which seems to be true for most tube amps (OTL amps might be an exeption - not sure, though, someone correct me, if this statement is wrong). So, if you don't run obscenely long interconnects (stay around 1 m), you shouldn't run into any problems with a passive unit. If you want to get the Legends pre, anyway, you can still put a passive volume control (i.e. the Placette) in the signal path and it should do next to nothing to your signal. If you want to go with a high quality passive unit, you can get the Placette passive pre (which has 3 inputs, Placette's remote volume control just has one) or the Audio Synthesis Passion Ultimate (which also comes with an optinal MM/MC phono board). If you want to get a turntable later, you can always get a phono pre amp (you need one, anyway, if your pre amp doesn't have one built-in) and plug it into the passive pre. Good luck.
Placette pre amp
I don't have a pre-amp yet and I'm not sure if I should get one. I am waiting to decide whether to buy a cd player with a volume control or to get a passive pre-amp. What would be the difference in sound? I have tube amps (Legend Audio Design) and love the sound of them, but their pre-amp doesn't have a volume remote, which I really want. If I get a passive preamp or cd player with a volume control will I lose the sound of the Legends? I know there has been a lot of discussion about passives but still not sure what to do. Does anybody own the Placette (or any other passive) and what does it do to the sound versus having an active pre-amp or cd directly into the amps? I don't own a turntable right now, but will be getting one down the road, so I may need a pre-amp?