The Best Preamp is no Preamp?

Everybody talks about high quality preamps, which makes over-all sound good. Yes, the pre MAKES (modify) poor sound from poor sources to be good. That means the pre does change the original music signal into slightly different signal. The modified signal would be good to our ears. Do not praise the preamp that makes poor source better. Just blame the poor source. If you have good source (well-recorded CD for example), you can enjoy the music much better with no preamp. Why does tube-based gears make good sound? Just because the tubes tend to add some distortion to the original signal, and the added signal makes our ears pleasing. The added signal is usually even-order frequencies.

Shorter speaker cables make the over-all sound better? I have to laugh at the guy who says that. Inside the speakers, there are very long coils. Due to limited space condition, the coil's physical shape can not be better than that of speaker cables. Compromised long speaker voice coil and very short speaker cable? Usually, the speaker cable length does not matter very much unless the cables run longer than 50 feet.

Agreed!  Even gooder is eliminating power amps (technically).  Music server feeding Weiss 501 DAC/volume control directly to ATC active speakers.  Faster, more dynamic, more detail and only four pieces to reproduce music.

Since Enlighten Audio Design (EAD), Theta days in ‘90s.. fast forward to dCS Verdi/Elgar/Purcell/clock to more recent days’ Accuphase 2 boxes, and friend’s Vivaldi stack, MSB Select (complete) double power bases, pre module etc, Esoteric Grandioso stack—still I/we found running through preamps the sound were just more realistically ‘live’ and musical (bluntly~akin to 2D vs 3D rendition of the music). Unless one wants to simplify, or $ave on peripherals (cabling etc.), a great preamp in a top flight system is the way to go.

Maybe someday in the future when pre module in dac or passive improved further can hopefully forgo the pre, but not yet.. imho, ymmv.

I’m digital only and currently using only one input on my preamp, yet it costed more than my speakers—yes call me crazy, but the difference (to me) is rather dramatic and worth its cost.

I've always used the CD-direct-to-amp as a sanity check for evaluating how a new preamp sounds.  The direct is always more neutral, but lacks a certain "something".  A lesser preamp will clearly sound worse than direct, but a good preamp will tend to sound bigger, wider, & more dynamic.  I've had a couple pre's that were switchable between active & passive, and I found it interesting to switch between modes.  The passive mode would be more neutral, but I usually left it on active.  Over years and years of use, you'd think I'd just instinctively gravitate towards the position that gave me greater pleasure, and that position was always "active".   

A passive pre will allow you to listen to your power amp. If you like what you hear, that may be all you need.

If you don’t like what you hear, you might need to add 2nd harmonic distortion to the signal (active pre) to fatten up the sound, add body and dimension, texture....the good seasoning us audiophiles tend to crave.

If your DAC isn’t 2 volts or you have really long cable runs, an active preamp may be required.