Thiel Owners

@unsound ​​@vair68robert 
  Great insight you all are offering, your patience with the noob here is greatly appreciated!  I have to agree that in this case, the pre amp seems like a superfluous addition, I think the DAC pre will work great for my purposes.  Unsound, thanks for the real-world example about the voltage matching, I've seen references to that concept before on youtube that left me with some head scratching, but your example drove it home nicely.  

219 pages...maybe we could throw some chapter markings in here or something!

@coop_301, After re-reading my last post, I realized that I failed to mention that the recommendation to use a DAC with internal volume control vs. an out board passive pre was predicated on using a DAC with extra available bits (such as the 32-bit chip equipped DACs alluded to). If one were to use a 16 or even 20-bit DAC (as is typical with most R2R DACS), analog volume attenuation (typically though not necessarily through an outboard passive pre) would probably be better to avoid bit stripping. That how-ever adds other considerations, especially with regard to interconnects as suggested by @tomthiel.

Thanks for the clarification unsound, I'm very curious to learn more about the bit stripping as that's new to me, will definitely read up on that.  I've looked at a few DACs recently, and I've been making sure they do 32 bit per your suggestion (leading choice is the RME, also checking into the voltage on it as well).  

@coop_301 IMHO, the high bit internal volume control is preferable to the out board passive pre scenario.

Great, thanks again, I think that shouldn't be too hard to find with the current lineup out there.