In terms of gain you don't need one. And having no preamp will make your stereo sound more lively but only a touch. What a tube preamp does really well amongst other things is allow you to voice your system. If your speakers have a benign impedance curve (if they're 8ohms nominal they probably do) the linestage in your preamp will have the greatest influence on the overall sound which is really handy; you can swap out relatively inexpensive nos tubes instead of endlessly buying new speakers, amps or sources trying to get the sound you're after. I try to get everything as neutral as possible apart from the preamp's linestage. So yeah, chalk me up one vote for a tube pre.
Do I really need a preamp?
As I continue to upgrade my system, I keep asking myself this. I'm looking at the Benchmark DAC2. Since it acts as a preamp, do I really need one? Currently I'm using Peachtree 220 with the NovaPre and it sounds nice, but like the way these things go, I think it could sound even better. With the upgrade, I'm thinking I can eliminate the Pre and run the DAC2 with a new amp (thinking D-Sonic maybe)but I'm not sure.
Any useful information would be appreciated. Pretty new to all this, but deeply obsessed.
Any useful information would be appreciated. Pretty new to all this, but deeply obsessed.