I have had the opposite experience as initforthemusic. I hear more emotion, more soul, more dimensionality, more involvement, of my music. The start and stop of the musicianship ( prat ) has never been better. No more editorializing, no more coloration, so much more detail, in every category. Many people are afraid to give up their tried and true preamps. For $46., shipped to you from a California warehouse, is a single, one in, one out passive device by Douk Audio ( China manufactured ), an Ebay seller. After running my Luminous for about a year now, I wanted a passive unit for a 2nd system. This is an incredible little piece of kit ( superior, imo, to the Schiit SYS, in SQ ( which is good, as I borrowed one for a weekend ), providing you can live with one in and one out. An inexpensive way to try passive. I realize system matching is important. But my 3 dacs, several tuners and other sources all drive my many amplifiers I have, and my systems sound more " live " than ever. Enjoy ! MrD.
