Are Pre-Amps necessary?

@unsound.

Exactly . The problem today is that it adds yet another compatibility issue in an already very difficult matching problem. One more variable can just make a misstep too easy. Assembling a high end system is too challenging for many people already, adding one more level of complexity can be too much.

If you have a lot of money and are ok committing to a single product line, or you like the challenge, it can be done.

It will become much easier in the future. Especially as analog dies out as a popular pursuit… which at some point it will… but look how much longer that has taken than anyone thought.

Yes, preamps are dinosaurs as they were 200 million years ago. They will go extinct, but not soon.

Yes, unless you dedicate yourself to researching and investigating really compatible components… I mean way harder than just high end audio… or you simple love the sound of one companies products together. Then the answer is a good preamp is the heart of a great system. Many people have tried, many people have given up. 

By the way in general, tone controls don’t perform the function to which they are designed, note high end audio equipment do not have them, and digital processing has basically the same problem. You want equipment that does a very minimum very very well and nothing else. Low end equipment comes with all sorts of buttons and functions.

I am sure some day great preampless systems will common… but honestly not for a long time.