Arthur is a man with opinions like all of us. It is strange all of the products he says are the best of the best are Coincident. Is this just a coincidence for Coincident? Highly unlikely in all honesty folks. At the minimum, it simply reflects his sole experience and preferences. At minimum.
He likes a particular sound from his system as we all do. No right or wrong, just preference. One is not truer to the music then the another as all systems are not true in some way. A preamp less system is still a sound system producing sound from a series of wires, components, parts etc...with a resulting sound. The END result is still compilation of the total system.
Arthur may like it without a preamp and I like it with a preamp. No ultimate right or truer system, just opinion and preference.
I have done the Bolero test numerous times and owned the LSA twice and borrowed it a third time. I have owned the Placette, gone direct with great DAC's, direct from amps and scaled the mountains of passive and direct options. In the end, music sounded more like music with my best in class tube preamp.
No, my music is not more more distorted, less resolving, tone controlled, etc...it merely sounds more like music does and should to me, based on my experiences with music and my preferences.
If a passive, or direct from DAC or amp does this for you, then that is wonderful. It does not mean anything more than that however. No far reaching general conclusion about the state and result of music systems for all of humanity. That conclusion is leaping well beyond the scope of what is reasonable and true.
