Passive preamps have nothing to do with a CD player that has an integrated volume control, as I've said many times before. Such a CD player simply and effectively puts an active linestage inside the chassis of the CD player...just in case some are misunderstanding that.
Sound without the Preamp ?
I thought I posted this before, but can't find it so here goes. I need some help here. I removed my tubed preamp and plugged the balanced interconnects directly from the 2 tube monoblocks directly to an Accuphase CD player with volume control. A weird thing happened. The sound got better, more transparent, deeper and tighter base. I find this indded strange because, this tube preamp is one of the industry's heavyweights, with a price to prove it too. Am I just "hearing things " ??