Andrew,
there is is certainly nothing stopping you from getting a preamp, and you may indeed acquire one at some point. My suggestion is to put the cash into the source, and if that source does not require a preamp, that means you can have more budget freedom for a better source.
I recently read a post from an enthusiast who compared his PS Audio PWD connected directly to his power amp to the more common configuration through his preamp. Darn it I should have copied the link for you! His results compared a dozen different demo songs, and in some cases he prefered the conventional setup, while in other cases he preferred the DAC on its own. No doubt you can find this or similar posts.
With your budget, I do still think you'd be best served with a 2nd hand DAC to handle both duties, the digital and the preamp functions. I am not so sure if you can realistically look for a DAC that will approximate a particular preamp sound as you asked here. I certainly may be wrong, but I would focus all on the performance of the DAC itself and see how it goes. My guess is that you will be very pleased with most DACs that can command a $1500 price on the 2nd hand market. My vote still goes to the PS Audio PWD MkII, biased to be sure because I have one!
The PWD mk II with bridge mk II allows you some network benefits such as not using a USB cable, and rather connecting with a standard computer network cable, in which case the bridge acts as your player, and a darned good one at that.
there is is certainly nothing stopping you from getting a preamp, and you may indeed acquire one at some point. My suggestion is to put the cash into the source, and if that source does not require a preamp, that means you can have more budget freedom for a better source.
I recently read a post from an enthusiast who compared his PS Audio PWD connected directly to his power amp to the more common configuration through his preamp. Darn it I should have copied the link for you! His results compared a dozen different demo songs, and in some cases he prefered the conventional setup, while in other cases he preferred the DAC on its own. No doubt you can find this or similar posts.
With your budget, I do still think you'd be best served with a 2nd hand DAC to handle both duties, the digital and the preamp functions. I am not so sure if you can realistically look for a DAC that will approximate a particular preamp sound as you asked here. I certainly may be wrong, but I would focus all on the performance of the DAC itself and see how it goes. My guess is that you will be very pleased with most DACs that can command a $1500 price on the 2nd hand market. My vote still goes to the PS Audio PWD MkII, biased to be sure because I have one!
The PWD mk II with bridge mk II allows you some network benefits such as not using a USB cable, and rather connecting with a standard computer network cable, in which case the bridge acts as your player, and a darned good one at that.