Thanks for all the input. I may take you up on your offer, Tom. I am electronically ignorant, but do have the assembly skills (I assume that they are still present in my brain and hands anyway). A good thing about DIY (other than the price and perhaps the quality, depending on my skill level) is that I intend on bypassing the RCA's on whatever I use and hardwiring it instead with the 47 Labs OTA cable. This is the only way that I can justify all of these additional connections and it may void the warranty on a pro unit (I will ask FT first when I get to that point as this may not be the case). I think that I will start by asking a friend to bring his Creek passive by the next time he is in my area (just to see what effect it has on the mids in my system as I understand that it may influence the lows and highs a bit). I have never used a passive, though I suspect that the volume pot in my amp, may be just that. I had also hoped that I would be able to place the Alps pot (already on my amp) at it's optimal level, which might actually improve the sound of my setup if the other passive does not get in the way and works well within it's volume pot range. This is all guess work, but it seems that this might be the case. I just secured a TDS Passive Audiophile this morning (always wanted to try one), so abruptly ran out of funds for the passive preamp addition, but will start selling stuff out of the closet on Ebay to raise the funds. I just realized that we already have a CD changer (for my wife) which is contained in the Pioneer PDR-W839 CDR that is resting in the spare room right now, so I am sure that she will be up for the addition of a preamp, once she understands that she can just flip a switch and then use the changer for background music. I intend on hardwiring the TDS as well as it does not come with a warranty.
