Berkeley Alpha Reference run direct

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    

I contacted Berkeley Audio Design. They Can change the voltage gain of the DAC, internally, if requested. There is No way for the user to change the voltage gain of the DAC, in comparison to its volume level. The BAR was designed to optimally drive loads with about 20 db of gain, which allows for an ideal volume setting of 54.