It's funny, I had concerns before buying this amp whether first of all it would have enough power, and then secondly, if the passive preamp would prevent me from reaching loud volumes with my fairly inefficient speakers. None of those things were an issue, so now as a non-technical person I'm wondering why any integrated amp needs a preamp? I've also discovered that the amp is damn near silent noise wise even with the volume set at the twelve O'clock position, which in my smallish room and with my speakers would be louder then I would likely ever play music. All this is obviously good, but confusing, given that the amp supposedly has it's gain 3db higher from the get-go.