Passive preamp

never sounded any good to me

I stumbled upon an integrated unit that has both active and passive preamplification.   Creek Destiny2.  Although may be frowned upon in high-end circles, I find the ability to chose between passive and active (Destiny2 offers gain of 3, 6 or 9 dB) to be advantageous when choosing between source and music genre.  Jazz, classical and acoustic vocals shine when passive sourcing CDs or LPs, allowing the output stage of the CD or phono stage to drive the amplifier.   Laid back yes, pleasing immensely so.  Active, well think Baba O'Reilly, or any other guitar based rock LP.

nekoaudio's posts on this subject are right on, and consistent with my experience

When considering using a passive line stage one should also consider the output voltage of the source components and the input sensitivity of the amplifiers. While the CD standard output via RCA is 2 Volts and the HDCD standard output via RCA is 2.2 Volts, many don't play be the rules. Some are over and some are under. Other perhaps considered legacy components such as tuners, tape decks, etc., are often well below (and less likely above) and might not be able to drive amplifiers to the full power output that the consumer paid for.