Berkeley Alpha Reference run direct

Not sure if better, but i would be very curious what a tube preamp would do. Im in the minority who find the BAD a bit cool, so if i had deep pockets and endless time it want to try a very good tube pre to warm and maybe sprinkle a little magic. ;)

Like I said though, few would agree with me.

Erik, I agree with you.

imgoodwithtools:  Setting negative gain for each channel allows for increasing stereo volume to exercise more bits for greater resolution.  Balance merely adjusts volume for each channel relative to each other to compensate for differences in program material.

I didn't know that. You would think Berkeley would make that more apparent. I will try reducing the gain tonight.

I could not get this negative gain thing to happen. First I set the volume control on 0, then tried lowering the L/R gain. It would not go below 0. Then I set the volume at 7, then lowered both L/R gain to 1. When I checked the volume, it followed the change to 1. Upon setting the volume to 47.3, the gain was unchanged at 47.3 in both channels.

Mine sounds amazing feeding my amplifiers direct, DAC to amps.
imgoodwithtools

Stay with that, this way your hearing it at it's most transparent/dynamic best. As today's sources can drive amps just as good if not better than some preamps can.  
Sticking in more unneeded electronics in the signal path is just adding more colourations. If you like those colouration more, then you should look elsewhere to change your sound instead of adding more unneeded electronics, eg: amp, speakers or even the source itself.

Cheers George