Partly passive preamp?

There’s a Placette passive pre on US Audio Mart for $1400 that has three inputs and is about as transparent as it gets.

I’d also highly recommend a Bryston BP-6, which I owned for years, that is active but is the epitome of the term “straight wire with gain” as it is the most open and transparent component I’ve ever heard.  This and the Placette are both single ended, but if you need/want balanced connections the Bryston BP-26 would give you that option.  There are some BP-6 and 26 pres available on eBay right now if you’re interested.  Given what you’re looking for I think you’ll be thrilled with any of these.  Hope this helps, and best of luck in your search. 

I’m not aware of any commercial product that does that (multiple inputs, pure passthrough on one input, active + volume control on others).

Otherwise you’d be talking about finding a new preamp (or high quality integrated) that equals or exceeds the performance that you get running your DAC direct, and ditto for your phono. 25 years is a good amount of time to justify an upgrade, I’d say!

I bought a little passive, opened it up and added my SC silver teflon jacketed wire. The switches were copper rotary, and the toggles were silver contact. I paid 49.00 and bought a pair. It took me 3-4 hours to do both, From a PC board to a point to point. Mine was for volume control on a bass set up and a Tweeter project that needed good silver wire beginning to end.
Copper would have been fine, BUT I had the silver so I did one with silver and one with copper.  They were RCA, XLR with a switch, but they had a place on the little MB (IC) for an additional opAmp and a few other goodies. Problem is it wouldn't be Point to Point, and running through lead/tin traces, not the best stuff for HiFi HiFi. 

My total cost per unit was 60.00 usd and some change. 2.5 hours labor.

Anything with ANY good parts, 500.00 or less is a steal...

Very easy to build an expensive passive with a few parts. I looked at
georgehifi's unit. I like it, but you notice a wire upgrade, better wire, solder and switches, make a BIG difference in sound it's there for a reason...Nice lookin' unit to. US made. Mine was US modified if that counts for anything... :-)

Regards

All you need is a preamp with true HT passthrough (not unity gain).

Check out Music First, which can be ordered with remote control.