When I bought my first CD player with a volume control (CAL CL-15) I decided to try it feeding directly into my CJ amp. That was two years ago and I still don't use a pre-amp. It works for me and judging from the previous comments, I'm not alone.
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 " ??