Sound without the Preamp ?

All six previous comments square with my experience, and I found Redkiwi's especially useful. I'm not lucky enough yet to have a CD source with volume control, but hope to get a Wadia 830, 850 or 860 to test against my homemade passive preamp. For those of you with no CD volume control, a high quality passive, which can be homemade--mine is, using dual mono Shallco switches from The Parts Connection, is an option. I also have a CAT SL-1 III with signal path factory-simplified (three or four switches bypassed), and it's not close to as good on CD's as my Shallco passive.

When I bought my first CD player with a volume control (CAL CL-15) I decided to try it feeding directly into my CJ amp. That was two years ago and I still don't use a pre-amp. It works for me and judging from the previous comments, I'm not alone.

I have a solid state system: Older Proceed DAP connected directly into an Adcom 5802. When I used the Adcom GFP 750 preamp I noticed loss of dynamics and clarity. My DAP has a "hybrid" digital/analog volume control. I have read that controlling the volume in the analog stage is the best for resolution preservation, esp. at low volumes. Any opinions on this?

I too have had great results getting rid of the preamp. I recently upgraded from Meridian 506.24 with Adcom GFP 750 to the Wadia 860x player. I compared the Wadia with and without the preamp, and it was WAY better without. I'm going to spend the extra money saved on better interconnect.

I have found that replacing the active preamp with a passive / direct does increase the "hi-fi" sounds (imaging,soundstage,noise, etc) but detracts from the "musical" aspects of the performance (dynamics,timbre,pace,rythym,etc.) anyone agree?? I ask why so many listen to an active linestage when a passive is so much less expensive / less complicated??