Gah. I posted a while back about how I preferred the Bartók directly into my power amps (Pass XA60.8s), rather than through my Pass XP-30 preamp. I still do. What I was comparing:
A) Bartók at 0.6V, direct, doing the attenuation.
B) Bartók at 2V, via XP-30, with the pre doing the attenuation.
To me, A is clearly better in the huge majority of cases, across many, many genres of tunes.
But, I’m a few hours into a comparison between that and a new configuration:
C) Bartók at 6V, via XP-30, with the pre doing the work again.
And — bugger it — it’s not nearly as clear cut. It might even be that C is better. Hmm. Ok, I’m going back in. I’ll report back.