[quote user="Andrew Everard"] Of course, it may sound fabulous, but it should be possible to build something similar for rather less, and with minimal electronics knowledge.[/quote]
Now, I may be barking up the wrong proverbial (or indeed, just barking), but would the ultimate pre-amp (sound-wise) be a selection of gold-plated phono sockets, hard wired to resistors in the correct configuration, to an output (i.e. pair 1 go through resistor values A, pair 2 through value B and so on, so which sockets you put the cables in determines the volume level).
Or am I missing something obvious here - apart from the convenience factor of having everything permanently plugged in and a nice knob to twiddle for volume...?