Berkeley DAC into preamp or amp ?

My Berkeley rarely gets out of the 30s feeding directly into the amp. Any comments?

I recently tried the Berkeley running directly into the amp. My experience has been that such a setup always flattens the depth dimension of the soundstage, and this was no exception. In my opinion, any minor improvements over an excellent preamp (immediacy and such) are not worth what I consider to be an unacceptable compromise. In my case, I need the preamp for vinyl in any event. The exercise simply proved what I had heard on numerous 'direct feed' systems previously.

Curriemt11 - that's been my experience too, at least with a couple of Wadia CDP's I used to own. As for the Berkeley direct, do you recall how far you had to attenuate with most music? (I.e. what was the LED readout, and did large attenuation seem to affect the sound?)

Rja - what amp are you using?

Ral - sorry, I should have mentioned that. Moderately high volumes were in the 50 range. I noticed no deterioration of the sound at lower levels, but then again, I rarely listen at those volumes.

Ral,
I'm using a McCormack DNA225 with platinum mods by Steve McCormack.