Honestly, Audio Research in my opinion has not produced a solid state amplifier that can compete with the McCormack's soundstaging & musicality except for the AR 100.2 which has been tauted as one of their best solid state amps. Their forte has mostly been in tube gear with some exceptions.
Right now I have the opposite problem you are experiencing. My active preamp is not providing enough gain for my current amp for the exception of the CD player & most always the CD player has more gain than the other source components. If you mostly listen to CDs it would nice if you could find a quality player with built-in level control to alleviate your problem. If push comes to shove I would prefer your situation.
Right now I have the opposite problem you are experiencing. My active preamp is not providing enough gain for my current amp for the exception of the CD player & most always the CD player has more gain than the other source components. If you mostly listen to CDs it would nice if you could find a quality player with built-in level control to alleviate your problem. If push comes to shove I would prefer your situation.