The Best Preamp is no Preamp?

Yeah I missed that too.

After purchasing the Lumin X1, I realized how much cleaner, open and dynamic the sound can be without a preamp.

I ended up selling my Ayre KX-20 preamp along with all the extra cables, footers and streamlined my system.

ozzy

I have to agree with ghdprentice and phantom_av: the vast majority of the time, a great (tube) pre-amp is essential.

It really depends on what you have. We have tried to forego a pre-amp and go direct from Streamer (Linn Selekt DSM w/Kalayst DAC) to our Pass Labs monos. And while there were gains in resolution, it was not the type of resolution you want to actually LISTEN to--at least for more than a song or two.

The tube pre-amp gives us all the resolution of the direct method--that is: everything we heard going direct was there with the pre-amp. But here's the the trick: it was the pre-amp's arrangement and emphases of the frequencies and detail that made it both (audiophile-terminology alert!) musical/dynamic and cohesive (properly packaged with sounds in proper relation to each other).

Perhaps if we had the MSB Select or dCS Vivaldi+, we would have different results. But I really do not think so.

The gains in going direct are unbridled detail. But is that what audio systems are designed to do? Maybe a stethoscope is. But a MUSIC system is supposed to trick our brains into believing (coupled with our willing disbelief) that we are sitting I front of the live performance.

And that requires a tonal and dimensional consideration that a direct connection is usually incapable of delivering.

I'm feeding a CD player directly into my Sophia EL 34. Anything else comes in on an "Aux" input. It sounds glorious.

I agree with a 'less is more' approach but It could have been the Marantz holding your system performance back.