Preamps can color sound considerably. Surprising?

@atmasphere 

If the active line stage is good at controlling the interconnect cable it stands a very good chance of being more neutral than a passive device and possibly also lower distortion, depending on the passive device to which its compared.

So its a mixed bag, which is why this conversation persists.

Such a keen point. 
I n theory and on paper, the passive approach should be more invisible/transparent, more out of the way. Yet in practice, a high quality active will often yield the better or more realistic sound quality. It is indeed a “mixed bag.”

Charles 

@wolf_garcia 

Those engineers operating the studio gear are putting that sacred "absolute sound" through miles of wires, pan pots, addled brains, unclean tape heads, unclean bald heads, digital manipulation, badly tuned pianos, and personal tastes just like the home hifi geek. The only way around it is to hire musicians to form a circle around you while you lie on the floor after recently having cleaned your ears. Preamps sound however the designer wanted them to so it's up to you to decide what sonic manipulation you prefer. If you're lucky you can enjoy music...or spoken word...or dump trucks backing up...lucky you.

+1, An effective dose of reality nicely summarized.

Charles

@mulveling 

I’m not in the pursuit of "ultimate truth" like some self-important amateur philosopher. I’m seeking different and better audio experiences for my personal musical enjoyment. My experience with great-measuring darlings of the ASR crowd (Benchmark, RME) has been bad, so I don’t even care if that represents "truth" - it sounds bad to me and I don’t want it.

Well said.

Charles