Ah, a discussion close to my heart!
Couple things: firstly, I "hate" preamps. They go against all my audiophile religious sensibilities. I want transparency, detail, fidelity. Adding a component in between that really does nothing...yadda yadda. BUT, I also know it's needed. In the real world, maybe half of the stuff I have ever used doesn't benefit, or work better, going "passive".
But the other thing, I believe as listeners, we get used to and accept coloration in components we have had years with or love for years. We just listen past it, listen through. Even a less resolving or capable component or system, if we can still hear differences swapping other components, we can still hear the more transparent components or more detail and such.
Couple things: firstly, I "hate" preamps. They go against all my audiophile religious sensibilities. I want transparency, detail, fidelity. Adding a component in between that really does nothing...yadda yadda. BUT, I also know it's needed. In the real world, maybe half of the stuff I have ever used doesn't benefit, or work better, going "passive".
But the other thing, I believe as listeners, we get used to and accept coloration in components we have had years with or love for years. We just listen past it, listen through. Even a less resolving or capable component or system, if we can still hear differences swapping other components, we can still hear the more transparent components or more detail and such.