Yeah, impendance matching and or sufficient gain can sometimes be a problem with the "passive preamp" approach, or no preamp at all. Id you do have a CD player with a volume control, it often at the very least sounds a bit lean dynaically, and sometimes can be thin or lack body etc. I ran a passive pre, and no pre, for years. And while the sound was pretty, clear, detailed, etc, it was never strong dyamically, and sounded lean overall. Now if you never listen to anything more than instrumentals, vocals, and light music, this might be fine. But for me, and considering most "passive" speakers are dynamically fairly innept to begine with, I think systems need all the dynamic ability thy can get!,,,and the passive route usually doesn't offer than it a preamp.
So,my experiences in systems with the "passive preamp" approach has been good in some ways, yet a sacrifice in others. Guess you gotta weigh you're priorities and needs. For me, I like a very good quality acive gain preamp if I'm doing music...especially heavy percussion, rock, world, full scale classical, etc!
Good luck
So,my experiences in systems with the "passive preamp" approach has been good in some ways, yet a sacrifice in others. Guess you gotta weigh you're priorities and needs. For me, I like a very good quality acive gain preamp if I'm doing music...especially heavy percussion, rock, world, full scale classical, etc!
Good luck