DAC vs. Preamp

Thanks everybody that has answered. I'm going to go with a preamp and get the DAC. I'll check on all suggests. Has anyone used the Exogal Comet. its gotten some good reviews.

Another option worth looking into is a DEQX unit. HDP-4 replaced my prior preamp (the excellent Musical Fidelity kW which I need to get around to selling) and DAC. Gives you multiple digital inputs, 2 analog inputs, and digitally corrects for your room and your speaker. Pretty amazing unit. And very transparent. I notice no degradation of sound with my vinyl rig running the DEQX in bypass mode (which still involved ADC/DAC conversion. 

Gives you unbelievable flexibility in fine tuning the sound of your system, and you can program in multiple profiles that you can switch between at the click of a button. There is a long thread on DEQX here on Audiogon. There you'll see the super-member Almarg has also gotten on the DEQX train. 

That sound intriguing. I'll check out some posts on that.

I've tried DAC only twice; first time with a PS Audio DSD, second time with the Bricasti M1...my ears prefer the sound with a preamp in the system. I currently have a Jeff Rowland Aeris DAC and Jeff Rowland Corus preamp. It's sounds much better than a DAC functioning as a DAC/preamp.

Thanks for the knowledge. I'm getting the opinion that almost no one thinks going without a preamp is a good idea. I thought that would be the case.