I am not able to suggest a pre-amp here (my gear and experience is far too modest), but I would like to tag in with a question, if I may, that may be useful nonetheless. Specifically, in the course of assembling my "second system" recently, I bought a Creek OBH-12se passive pre-amp (it was cheap, immediately available, and a passive pre was strongly recommended). Surprisingly enough, it sounds great! It seems to put no mark upon the signal whatsoever - source go in, source go out. Demonstrated this to myself by swapping amps and sources thru the Creek - ie listened to a Marantz CD67se thru my NYAL Moscode 300 and it was a bit clearer, less "dark". Similarly, I noted a new sharpness with my NAD 515 cd player thru the NYAL amp - not hit you between the eyes different, but just a bit more crisp in the treble, a bit more detailed on cymbals and strings and such. No denying, it could have been somewhat influenced by the change I heard in the Marantz, but I seem to hear it every time, whether using the NYAL or my NAD amp. So, for the question at hand, I ask what about something like a Placette passive pre? There's one on Audiogon right now @ $500. You'd get a really clean stage with cash left to up the ante on the cd source. Coupled with the Marsh amp (which I have heard at a dealer - very quiet power, there) I would think all you would hear would be what was on the cd. But then again, I could be completely wrong, there could be some impedance mismatch I am not considering, etc etc.
