Thoughts on the Signal Path

Sabai, preamp often helps with impedance matching, but it is also a matter of personal preference. How do you define sound quality? Is it transparency? That wouldn't be improved by adding additional elements in the chain. I see sound quality as a personal preference. Some people like warmth other like transparency. My wife doesn't like strong pronounced bass while many are searching for it. I like transparency, microdetail and midrange is very important to me, but I've read opinion that sound had too much resolution (looking for mushy sound?). Person was asking how to make sound warmer and less! detailed (I told him to put blankets over the speakers). Many people select tube preamp to add warmth to otherwise neutral amplifier. No right or wrong here.

Going live unamplified concert is another way to totally eliminate signal path.

The length of the signal path doesn't seem to account for everyones preference as you said. I am one who likes his small but active preamp.
I also have trouble with idea of some sacred purity of concert music. Czarivey was careful to say unamplified music. In any other case where sound reinforcement, mixing boards and amplified instruments are used the signal path is long and far from pure. How long is the signal path in the vast majority of cases, before it gets to you? I suppose you can argue that your system shouldn't make it any worse but I like my equipment.

I'm one of those who never found the ideal pre/amp combo. I was never happy. My Morrison ELAD which is considered by many critics to be as good as any preamp available and which is pure bare bones, dual mono, separate power supply, low gain as you can get seems to me on an intellectual level ideal. And I could live with it rather well. But my hk990 integrated surpasses it. Nothing is separate and it's all hardwired and solenoid switched together, and it changed my thinking. It defies the purist notion of separates that I previous held.

I have a tube amp and a tube preamp. When I run the system without the preamp the sound is awful. For others this may not be the case. I don't think that the length of the signal path has anything to do with sound quality. Some folks swear by a short signal path. They might change their mind if they A/B-ed systems where adding a preamp clearly improves the sound quality.