Short/er cables, any CD 2V source worth owning [playing!], and an amp of perhaps higher gain ~30 dB Can offer sonic nirvana despite what many "active" guys say. My tube-buffered passive was the best linestage I ever owned of ~20 used in my 30 years in this game. I traded it only to try a high-end headphone rig that did not last, I surely regret trading it away as it was a one-off by Tutay, one of the all-time true tube gurus. Drove my 25' i/c without degradation and it was good to 50' according to the Tom.
I now run a 1V dac into a 6 dB preamp, operating near the top of its single-resistor volume network into a gaincard clone and modest but swell 88 dB SEAS monitors. Finest kind for the bedroom. Big rig has a dac w/ analog-domain volume. I lost a power cable and interconnect, two i/c points of connection and the preamp itself. Sublime sonics, fewer boxes, and zero upgrades afer three years except for my marvelous 35W Class A 85# behemoth [amp]. The floor below suffered a little but my back is better %o)
Traded away Two 4a yrs ago, Doh! 2nd biggest audio trangression [see above]. Best of luck in the search for musical ectasy. I'll take that over irrational exuberance anyway. Gizmo's gone, Green-pan lives but looks 20 yrs dead. No justice, at least not in this America. Trip
I now run a 1V dac into a 6 dB preamp, operating near the top of its single-resistor volume network into a gaincard clone and modest but swell 88 dB SEAS monitors. Finest kind for the bedroom. Big rig has a dac w/ analog-domain volume. I lost a power cable and interconnect, two i/c points of connection and the preamp itself. Sublime sonics, fewer boxes, and zero upgrades afer three years except for my marvelous 35W Class A 85# behemoth [amp]. The floor below suffered a little but my back is better %o)
Traded away Two 4a yrs ago, Doh! 2nd biggest audio trangression [see above]. Best of luck in the search for musical ectasy. I'll take that over irrational exuberance anyway. Gizmo's gone, Green-pan lives but looks 20 yrs dead. No justice, at least not in this America. Trip