from what ive heard in my rigs running passive preamps & running amps with gain controls direct to a cd player i didnt care for it at all,i read alot of stuff where guys really liked listening that way so i tried it a few times with very poor results,maybee my rigs were mismatched,who knows but the result was dull & lifeless music that reminded me of a AM stereo radio station.
running a rig this way for the sake of a shorter signal path opens up other problem areas like having your system perfectly matched & leads to more cash being spent on cables,speaker wires & other tweaks trying to get it right.
you still cant go wrong spending your entire budget on an amplifier,if you dont care for the sound you can always add a preamp when cash flow allows,just remember when your looking for your new amp to pick an amp that has gain controls & you can use them as your volume control with no chance of damage to any equipment.
good luck,mike.
