Should I eliminate my preamp?

I went from a tube pre to a passive to a direct connection.  The passive had more detail than the tube pre but sucked the life out of my system.  When I eliminated the passive (and the additional interconnect) the direct connection maintained the detail of the passive but had much greater dynamics and it was as though I removed multiple blankets from the front of my speakers.  I then changed my interconnects to unshielded and the sound further improved.  My tech recommended a "current amp" (actually a 0 gain custom built active preamp) - haven't tried it and not sure what that is...

@elf1   I have been using my Audio Research tube preamp and Bryston amp to drive Magnepan speakers for years. Recently I added a Oppo blue ray player to my system and connected directly to my amp using the balance cables. The reason was to eliminate the signal having to go through another piece of equipment before it hits the amp. Am I wrong or what am I missing?

I am curious what you heard in this experiment? Whats missing is what you heard.!

Many owners have complained about the sound of the Oppo’s balanced or SE output I can’t remember which it was.
But technically the ESS dac chip having a balanced output, would say to me that balanced should be the superior output, as to have a SE output another summing opamp would have to be introduced to change balanced back into single ended.

Cheers George