TUBE PRE-AMP OR PASSIVE LINE STAGE ?

Yup. Until you've danced, you can't describe the floor. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad. I just decided to go with an ARC LS-16-for better or worse. I've had some of your negatives, and have sometimes been able to resolve them with a pre amp-even tho it's not politically correct at the moment. Best of luck, Racers

I justgot rid of a krell 250 a channel solid state amp.Replaced it with the new Audio electronic supply SE-845 SET mono blocks, about 32 watts achannel. But the sound is incredible,the only problem was that the gain could use a little boost.I'm currently using a camelot w/analog gain DAC straight into the amps. I was hesitant to put a preamp inline cause I liked the less is more philosiphy. So for fun I bought a audio electronic supply AE-3 tube preamp. Not only was gain increased but space,soundstaging, details,etc. I could go on & on. The same difference I discovered when I switched the overrated krell amp to the tube SET amps is the same difference I discovered with the installing a (God forbid) preamp (tube of course)I've been made beleiver of good preamps. It may take some carefull listening in your setup @ home. But it will be rewarding.

There have been multiple threads on this subject over the last few months. The conclusion is IT DEPENDS. I spent the last six month fiddling with DAC's preamps, cables and poweramps. Even when the equipment is in the insanely expensive class it still requires careful matching. I'm currently not using a preamp with my tube amps but it took a lot of work to get there. Here are references to some of the threads <>, <>