Best preamp is no preamp: always true?

smokester - very interesting response. I have been researching passive preamps of late and have been getting quite confused in the process. Resistive versus transformer-based versus autoformers, where does it end. Interestingly I had a conversation with the owner of First Sound yesterday as I was interested in their passive preamp. Bottom line, he suggested I look into one of his active preamps. Go figure... (no pun intended).

Pick your preference and use your ear.
Afterall, your ear will enjoy the most : )

newerphile,
Yes. There are some obvious measureable things to avoid otherwise you may possibly be covering up one ill with another. However, I think the general concensus is that, once you have the right gain level and impedences matched, always trust your ears.

S23chang: I think it will come down to that!
I looked upon the specs of my source and my amp and I see no particular problem with gain (out 2v, in 0.4v), nor impedance (out 325, in 35k). I guess I am free to listen to any preamp then, active or passive!!!!

newerphile,

"I guess I am free to listen to any preamp then..."

Careful. A resistive passive can interact with interconnect cable capacitance to form a low-pass filter so one should evaluate the other components in the system.

Read this:
http://www.dact.com/html/passive_preamp.html
from the DACT commercial web site and also maybe use this:
http://www.dact.com/html/ac_calculator.html
their attenuation calculator.

There are other, less commercial, technical papers on passive preamps which will probably be revealed with a google search. I can't put my finger on them right now. Also, maybe try the DIY forum over at audio asylum.