Control volume with DAC or Preamp?

I had a PS Audio DSD for almost 3 years, before going to the Emm Labs DV2 and Ref Pre. With the PS Audio running directly to my Classe' CA M600 I found the presentation far to edgy. (Dedicated circuits, great cabling) Not to mention noise! Run the PS Audio directly, without playing any music listen to your speakers while turning the volume up on the DAC. You will be amazed at the noise level! It should be dead quiet!  This indicates to me the pre in the dac is sub par. Depending on what gear you are using, I understand colorization. However, the right gear (what ever that means) Dac Pre combo is hard to beat. Its all about transparency. As George mentioned about bit stripping, I also was aware of the claim by PS Audio that there is no bit stripping. I find that hard to believe.
Within the next month I will compare the DV2 to the DA2 with the pre and see if I can detect any sonic differences? 

I had a DSD as well and a variety of preamps.  I considered scrapping the preamp because I know folks who were just using volume control on DSD.

I tried several A/B tests using the DSD vs an Ayre K5xeMp, PS Audio BHK Pre and Art Audio Conductor.  In all three cases, the preamps significantly outperformed the DSD.  I found the preamp stage on the DSD to be less than ideal though I hear it does better matched with PS Audio amps.  

The best connection is set the volume on the DSD to 100 and use the volume control on the Benchmark.  What you are doing by maxing out volume on the Benchmark and using the volume control on the DSD is probably giving you the worst possible outcome.  

Unless there’s some problem, the lowest noise is always achieved if you use all or most of what the source has to offer.
If not your throwing away source signal to ground (earth) with the active preamps volume pot just so the "gain stage" (that not needed) of that active preamp can make it back up again!!!!!

Nelson Pass tells everyone that here, why is it so hard for many to understand, (mental blocks perhaps).

Nelson Pass,

“We’ve got lots of gain in our electronics. More gain than some of us need or want. At least 10 db more.

Think of it this way: If you are running your volume control down around 9 o’clock, you are actually throwing away signal level so that a subsequent gain stage can make it back up.

Routinely DIYers opt to make themselves a “passive preamp” - just an input selector and a volume control.

What could be better? Hardly any noise or distortion added by these simple passive parts. No feedback, no worrying about what type of capacitors – just musical perfection.

And yet there are guys out there who don’t care for the result. “It sucks the life out of the music”, is a commonly heard refrain (really - I’m being serious here!). Maybe they are reacting psychologically to the need to turn the volume control up compared to an active preamp.”

Cheers George

@georgehifi I respect your perspective, but you can't tell people their ears are wrong when they find that an active preamp improves system performance. 

The nice thing about having volume control in both pre and dac is that it allows you to find out for yourself. When I did that I found that the pre-amp improved system performance in every way. Bascom King and many others have found the same. Some others like you have not. As always, you have to try it in your system to know which will hold for you.

The nice thing about having volume control in both pre and dac is that it allows you to find out for yourself.

What you have is basically two preamps running in series into each other, who does wants to do this craziness. 🥴

When I did that I found that the pre-amp improved system performance in every way.

What you found is you preferred the coloration/distortion that way, that the extra preamp gave you. (you need to fix the sound of your source because you don’t like it)
Next you’ll say 3 or 4 preamps in series it sounds better 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️or🤦‍♂️

Bascom King and many others have found the same.

Of course they do, they sell preamps