Will you guys please get of your hobby horses and do some simple maths.
My amps rated sensitivity is 750mV. The 600mV output of the (0dBFS) of the DAC preserves as much of the potential dynamic range in the signal without needing either attenuation (acceptable but undesirable) or amplification (always and in every case undesirable)
When using a test tone at -20dBFS my preferred volume settings were in the range of -9 to -14dB -- now no one listens to test tones, we listen to music with dynamic range -- in the case of the dynamic range database the peak to median level for the Stacey Kent track I use is 14dB (which by the way I play at the -9dB setting) -- if we assume (which is wrong) that the test tone represents the median (it doesn’t as test tones tend to need to be played lower than music) then the setup I have corresponds to peaks almost exactly hitting unity gain
I know you people believe that in all circumstances a preamp is bad but none of you have offered any explanation as to why the direct connection appeared to limit dynamic range and cause the peaks in the tracks (especially vocals) to harden?
ps interesting that only now do you talk about bit stripping .. of course by using the dCS at 0dB this problem is avoided, plus I understand that the implementation of the Vivaldi DAC avoids this issue ...
My amps rated sensitivity is 750mV. The 600mV output of the (0dBFS) of the DAC preserves as much of the potential dynamic range in the signal without needing either attenuation (acceptable but undesirable) or amplification (always and in every case undesirable)
When using a test tone at -20dBFS my preferred volume settings were in the range of -9 to -14dB -- now no one listens to test tones, we listen to music with dynamic range -- in the case of the dynamic range database the peak to median level for the Stacey Kent track I use is 14dB (which by the way I play at the -9dB setting) -- if we assume (which is wrong) that the test tone represents the median (it doesn’t as test tones tend to need to be played lower than music) then the setup I have corresponds to peaks almost exactly hitting unity gain
I know you people believe that in all circumstances a preamp is bad but none of you have offered any explanation as to why the direct connection appeared to limit dynamic range and cause the peaks in the tracks (especially vocals) to harden?
ps interesting that only now do you talk about bit stripping .. of course by using the dCS at 0dB this problem is avoided, plus I understand that the implementation of the Vivaldi DAC avoids this issue ...