A couple of things... As was said earlier, if you completely open the volume pot you effectively take it out of the circuit. An audible difference between a two identical circuits, except with one having an open volume pot, would be highly unlikely. My system sounds much better running the EAR 834p through a pre-amp, but systems will vary in that regard. One other nice thing... if you ever need to have your pre-amp repaired or you sell your pre-amp, you can use the EAR 834p with the volume control while you are without a pre-amp. Kind of handy.
Cheers
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