Is Pre-Amp needed

I used to own a dual mono TVC which I sold. The new owner claims that it bested a $12k Bespoke TVC. A TVC is a step-down attenuator, is what I understand. So the signal from source is toned down before being sent to the power amp.
I was pretty happy with the TVC for years. But when I replaced this TVC with an active preamp, the system gained musicality and life. There is a certain fullness that makes listening more pleasurable. Bass is rock solid and startling at times. I am amazed by what a great active preamp can bring to your system. And I had avoided an active preamp for 9 years thinking that they would distort or add fuzziness to the original sound from the source. Well, lesson learned!

The ARC preamp provides more of everything, especially the layering of instruments.

It can’t make something from nothing, all it can do is to add colouration/distortion euphonics if you wish to call it that. If it’s not on the recording a preamp cannot make it. There is no voodoo in hifi!

I was pretty happy with the TVC for years. But when I replaced this TVC with an active preamp, the system gained musicality and life.

TVC's are a "transformer based volume control" your lucky that's all you disliked about them.

Cheers George

I started a debate on this forum several years ago about the advantages and disadvantages of a preamp. I even took my preamp out of my system for awhile. I was searching for a clean and pure single, so I thought. Like many have reported here, one thing is certain, the sound of your system will definitely change.

 After sometime listening without a preamp, I went back to a preamp and will never go down that road again.  Preamps add so much to your system, and not having one eliminates much of the sublime beauty of recorded music for me. 

The timing of the discussion couldn't be better for me ,
I've been using a Goldpoint passive preamp for years , 2 inputs one for my Carver SD/A 490t CD player and one for my phono preamp .
The CD player sounds FANTASTIC with the passive pa , it was the reason I explored a passive preamp because it had a volume control and I would connect directly to the amp , a McCormack DNA-250 .
The problem was the "volume control " , I've learned that I like the sound of a stepped resistor over an Alps .

Now my problem , when using a SS SimAudio Moon 110P phono preamp there was less bass than when using the CD player 
( having a CD and record playing and switching back and forth ),
but not less enough to drive me crazy .
Now I have a Tavish Design Adagio and have been tube rolling trying to get the bass gain increased because it is less than the SS .

Yesterday I installed my old Carver CT-7 preamp and boom I had bass to compare with the CD player But being old and with a cheap volume control I lost a lot of detail .
I am back to using the Passive 
and looking into a newer used active Preamp .

So if I only had a CD player like lilchris9 then a passive would be my nirvana , but adding the phono preamp complicates things a bit .

My 2 dacs, in 2 systems, are an Adcom GDA 700, and an Audio Alchemy DDE V 3.0, both having beefed up power supplies, and a few more updates and tweeks. They are excellent in driving my passive units, with no loss of anything. I still own a dozen or so  power amps, and they all work great.