Need a preamp?

Thanks for inputs. Would the Schiit degrade or color the sound more than the Goldpt cause it's so much more affordable. Also, would either give worse sound than just switching the inputs manually and using the attenuator? Just for my own education, do passive preamp color the sound at all and what about cables? Are there any affordable, I mean in the 300 dollar range, used cables I should look for that do not add coloration?  

I was thinking of using the Schiit sys and leaving it on full volume and use the amp volume control. Would that function as a switch box or is a dedicated switch box better? If so, what's a good switch box?

Hi Milpai,

Interesting since any active preamp would seem to add some colouration. Did you have a ss amp with the Blackert? Maybe the tube preamp and ss amp was the right combo. I am currently running the st70 in triode and I do like that sound more than in linear and also with my McCormack. 

So I got the Schiit sys but it seemed to have muted the top end. Didn't sound as lively even with the volume turned all the way up. Waiting for my switch box to see how that performs (or ideally not perform 😉). Currently I have my itune from MacBook airplay to airport express and optical link to dacmagic and then directly to the amp. Using the itune volume control, I'm running amp at full volume. This has given me the best sound to my ear at least.  Unfortunately,  the airplay limits transfer to 44khz so best I can get is 16/44 and not the higher resolution files.

@milpai, I didn't listen to it very critically when I realized right away that it didn't sound completely transparent. I want to say maybe a tad less dynamic but YMMV. My feeling is that a preamp or anything that is introduced to a signal can only degrade it so I wasn't completely surprised. I even think a switch box wont be as good as without anything but the degradation may not be noticeable to me. I think a preamp that "improves" the sound just means that it added some colouration and/or minimized some faults to the source signal so that it sounded nicer to the reviewer. I'm sure my taste for tube sound is nothing like what the source really sounds like without any colouration. My 2 cents. 

@atmosphere. That's very informative. Thank you. I'm glad there are science and answers behind the different perceived sounds. 

I got the 60 dollars simple Douk audio switch box and can't discern any differences. However, my system is not the most revealing. Not elegant but works.