Best Preamp = No Preamp?

The golden age was late fifties right after high fidelity stereo debuted and was a brand new big deal. Like most things it's mostly taken for granted these days. When is the last time anyone ever referred to high fidelity sound? Oh yeah now it's high end and uber expensive. Fact is most audio people listen to today is quite hifi at various price points whereas it took something really special to make it happen with the technology available to consumers in those ancient times.

That's what audiophiles do.

Doing it like the pros makes too much sense. It would take all the fun out of things.