I've weighed in on this topic elsewhere, I think, but here's my take...
Years ago, us old f*rts used to use vinyl as a primary source, and I still do. In the old days, I and everyone I knew had a turntable and a tape deck. Vinyl was dubbed on to tape to create favorite mixes of songs for two primary reasons: 1) a 7" reel of tape would play for two hours @ 7 1/2 ips- or four hours @ 3 3/4 ips so we could listen to favorite songs without having to change records; and 2) we didn't want to 'wear-out' our records!
Today, most people use CD as the primary source- and they play twice as long as LP's without the user having to get up and 'flip' the record plus a lot of people burn CD copies on their computers- so the tape-loop function is really no longer needed for many music listeners.
For me, a tape loop is a big plus. And because I'm too lazy to un-plug my tape deck when I'm not using it, a buffered curcuit is preferable- or, a switch to dis-able the tape output (so as to not load-down my other source(s) is a necessity. For some, it isn't as important.
A passive tape-output would also come in handy to run a headphone amp so that feature would be useful even for those who don't record anything.
To me, a tape- loop or (a record-out) is necessary. I don't know what the cost is to include it- but I wouldn't buy a preamp without it.
My 2 cents- FWIW....
(guess it depends on whether your target market is old f*rts like me; or the younger music listener who probably has bought into the "no pre-amp is better" philosophy)
WEEZ
