Eliminated my preamp with amazing results

My understanding is that it has 2 main functions. #1 is to control volume. #2 is allow selection of various source components.

A very good question, @gdaddy1 which you almost answer completely, but I’d say a little off.

Besides source selection, a preamp’s jobs are:

• Level MATCHING
• Impedance MATCHING
• Equalizing (for phonographs)

@gdaddy1 @erik_squires IME preamps have 4 essential functions (this is limited to a line stage):

1) input selection

2) volume control

3) provide any needed gain (as will be the case if a tuner, phono section or consumer tape machine is used)

4) (and this is the least understood) reduce or eliminate  artifacts from the interconnect cable between the amp and preamp

Passive controls and TVCs are inherently incapable of point 4) above.

Gdaddy, I hope you understand that running directly out of your DAC is in fact using an active line section. Its dedicated to the DAC of course.

So this comment from your original post is not correct:

Having experimented with 'passive' preamps in the past (McCormack TLC-1) I thought the sound would possibly lose dynamics and bass response would suffer. WRONG!

because you are not working with a passive control right now. Make no mistake- for a DAC to drive a power amp directly the signal must be amplified to meet Redbook standards and that is done with an analog circuit similar to what you find in a preamp line section. As you can see, active circuits work quite well!

If a guy used a tube pre-amp then a regular solid state amp does the tube preamp inject the smoothness and soundstage of a tube?  Or, the tubes Must be in the amp to achieve the tube character of sound?  Does anyone have first hand knowledge?

@antigrunge2 

In the latter instance a passive should beat any active preamp on distortion, in the former the solution might be a better DAC. I have yet to hear a concise argument why a separate preamp with additional cables and innate additional distortion should beat a high quality DAC. For most modern designs arguments about impedance mismatches are irrelevant.

Agreed. It might be far better to allocate the money spent on a preamp and instead put it into a better DAC with a better volume control that may yield a much better quality sound. The DAC chips, jitter filters and proper volume controls should have a much bigger affect on the sound. 

i just bought a tube preamplifier for volume control and tube sound to compensate a bit for my active speakers amplification... Total success...

If a guy used a tube pre-amp then a regular solid state amp does the tube preamp inject the smoothness and soundstage of a tube?  Or, the tubes Must be in the amp to achieve the tube character of sound?  Does anyone have first hand knowledge?

@atmasphere 

Make no mistake- for a DAC to drive a power amp directly the signal must be amplified to meet Redbook standards and that is done with an analog circuit similar to what you find in a preamp line section.

If the DAC has an amplified signal, which I agree it does, why do I need to add a second line gain in the preamp? Isn't that redundant?

All I need is to attenuate the signal DOWN not up. Controlling the volume DOWN using my passive TLC-1 adds NO line gain.