Bypass preamp, better sound, yet fatiguing?

It all depends on system synergy. Try Silent Audio Apollo C (copper) cables directly to your SS amp or SS preamp. They tamed some of the harshness from my system and are very good with SS equipment. My system (as it is now) sounds better directly to my amp. I may experiment with a tube preamp at some time down the road........

My hunch is you have several issues here;

1. You make no mention of line conditioning. If you were to install proper line conditioners, then not only will your enhanced detail become even more enhanced, pristine, and musical but you will notice that the listener fatigue should go away instantly. Everybody has dirty AC coming in from the street and everybody will benefit from proper line conditioning. Furthermore, if your source is digital, then your digital source is inducing a bi-directional digital noise back into the AC for the other components to pick up. So any line conditioners you were to consider should also be capable of bi-directional filtering.

2. Your ics and scs may be inducing a certain amount of time smear that leads to grainy or hash ear-fatiguing sound in the highs and an ill-defined bass in the bottom end. This is a very common problem among scs and ics but I cannot speak specifically about the Transparent lineup.

3. It sounds as though your preamp is a bit subdued in the detail department and is thus masking not only the detail but also some of the detriments of a system not using proper line conditioning.

I'd guess that lack of proper line conditioning is by far your biggest problem, then your preamp, and possibly your scs and ics.

Furthermore, I'd guess that if you borrowed the appropriate line-conditioners (not all are worth owning), not only will you be enjoying your system's sonics far more, but you'll probably sell your preamp (which would help pay for the line conditioners).

-IMO

I had a Powerplant P-300 for a while, powering the preamp and CD player, but then I installed dedicated outlets (three total; one for each mono block, and one for CD and preamp), and I felt that the sound was more dynamic without the powerplant, so I took it out.

If bi-directional digital noise is an issue, why don't I hear it with the preamp in the chain?

Stehno, what kind of line conditioning are you referring to? Thanks.

I have an Adcom 750 which allows me to listen in a passive mode. My Modwright Sony sounds very good in passive mode but I prefer listening to it with the pre amp active. Sounds more alive,more dynamic. The Sony sounds great in passive mode but I have to really turn it up to get the same sound. I mean no offense but that is a very good pre,it's doing what you paid for it to do.
Now the Impedence between the VTL and Levinson could be an issue though. When I ran my Modified Adcom 555 with my VTL Ultimate pre amp it was not a good match at all. I believe Paul Speltz(anti-cables) makes a transformer or some dodad which configures the best impedence for your system but I think it is run between the amp and speakers.

Hgabert, I need to be careful here as I very recently became a dealer which included becoming a dealer for the Foundation Research passive and dedicated line conditioners.

I should also note that I've been using the Foundation Research line conditioners for almost 5 years now and wrote several reviews here on these products years before I became a dealer.

I could be very specific about the line conditioner you mentioned based on my personal experience at a customer's home (If you email me, I'll provide you the gentleman's email address so you can discuss with him.)

Rather I will simply reiterate my statement in my previous post where I stated, "proper line conditioning."

Your sonics did not improve so much because of the dedicated lines because, like everybody, your AC from the street is going to be just about as dirty as everyone else's AC.

The dedicated lines would no doubt offer your amp greater dynamics and may have helped tame some AC noise generated from inside your home by appliances and dimmers now on other circuits but they do nothing to treat the worst AC noise which comes from the pole outside.

So if the dedicated lines were not the reason for the improvement, then there is still another reason for the improvement you claim.

Don't get me wrong here as I'm not trying to sell you anything. Except perhaps the thought that not all line conditioners are created equally. Line conditioners, like any other component, will run the whole gamut.

There are line conditioners that induce sonic harm, there are those that rob an amplifier of needed current and thus strip away the dynamics, there are those that do little or nothing, there are those that provide any combination thereof, and then there are those that induce no sonic harm at all while providing tremendous musical benefit.

Foundation Research products are the best I know but they certainly not alone in this regard.

Regarding your question about the preamp, like I said in my previous post, my hunch is that your preamp is lacking in the detail department. That's why you hear greater detail when it is removed. At the same time, the preamp is probably also masking the higher noise-floor, digital hash, and lack of properly treated AC at the same time.

My only advise here is keep the dedicated lines as they definitely have their place in a system. But keep experimenting with different line conditioners. You'll know when you've found the right ones for your system.

-IMO