T and A D 200 Dac

I have a friend in the U.K. with very discerning taste who has it and raves about it

@milpai The preamp stage and volume control in the unit are of very high quality, and it can also be disabled to set the unit up as a standalone line level DAC. These features, are additive and do not take away from the fact that for $7,125, the DAC 200's DAC section is well worth it. the preamp stage can accommodate one set of analog inputs for a turntable or such, so the unit is designed with minimalism in mind. 

But even if it didnt have the preamp stage and volume control, I would still highly recommend it. I have compared the volume controls of other DAC, for example the Mola Mola Tambaqui and PS Audio DirectStream, and they are noisy, fatiguing, and brittle sounding compared to the DAC 200. Yes, more and more DACs are employing volume controls, but few aside from the DAC 200 do it right (at least in the up to $15K price range). 

I own the DAC 200 and the matching AMP 200, purchased from @blisshifi. I agree with @blisshifi's assessment, it's a fantastic dac in it's own right and handles preamp functions extremely well. Deep, wide, holographic soundstage and excellent instrument separation. It has a ton of configurable options and a headphone input. For someone looking for a minimalist high end system, the T+A 200 series is hard to beat. 

I downsized from an Allnic L-1500 pre, ARC REF150, and Exogal comet dac to the dac/amp 200 combo and did not take a step back at all sound wise. In fact it's flat out better in most respects, and I would attribute most of that to the DAC 200. I do miss some of the tube magic of the previous system, but do not miss the heat, biasing, and replacement costs associated with tube equipment. Plus I don't have to worry about leaving the system running all day long working form home. 

@blisshifi ,

Thanks for letting me know. While that may be true, one is indirectly paying for something they do not want. If it was a pure DAC, the prices would be more favorable and without the additional circuit. This DAC is on my watch list for future.