No preamp 'Balance' control?

I have to agree with you on this one. I can drive myself nuts trying to get every individual recording I listen to in balance. If I don't have a control on the preamp I just use the position of my head as the balance control lol.

Yes a lot of preamps are made without balance controls.Less
parts,less noise.A volume or balance potentiometer can ad
noise,distortion,and may need other parts in the signal path
that might degrade the signal.It may be a purist thing,but
the no-balance control idea has been around for years.If you
need a balance control,use a preamp with one.The no-balance
preamps is not a guarantee that it is going to sound better
than the ones with a balance control.

Most of mine don't have one, at least one does. I had a preamp until this spring that had a volume control for each channel, it was a pain. I can't remember the last time I actually used a balance control. Certainly not since the 80s.

adding the balance control adds another device between you and the music, preamps are that much more transparent without them... My Klyne uses two input "gain" type pots ant then a volume pot, so you raise the gain on each channel so that acts like a balance function. the Klyne series 7 sounds great to me. My Passive unit has just one volume control and is just a bit more transparent and closer to the music than the Klyne, but the Passive's with two volume controls, one for each channel, should solve that balance issue also... The Audible Illusions tube preamps use two volume controls, one for each channel, also to that effect.

Balance control? What's a balance control? I can't remember the last preamp I owned that had a balance control. I agree on the dual volume controls...what a pain.