Low gain dac!

gryphongryph OP
what would you guys recommend ?

If your asking up to 50w Class-A only

There’s not much around that is just 30w Class-A
Pass Labs XA30 or XA25 https://www.passlabs.com/products/xa30.8/
My pick would be a Gryphon Essence https://gryphon-audio.dk/shop/power-amplifiers/essence-power/

Then if you want high biased Class-A and big A/B wattage
Parasond John Curl Halo JC5 https://parasound.com/jc5.php
Gryphon Integrated Diablo 120 or 300 https://gryphon-audio.dk/shop/integrated-amplifiers/gryphon-diablo-300-integrated-amplifier/

Cheers George

Hi @gryphongryph,
Solid state, Valvet Audio A4 mono blocks. Pure class A 55watt into 8 ohms/90 w at 4 ohms.

Tube, Line Magnetic 805ia class A SET 48 watts.
Both of these amplifiers would in my opinion easily drive your 8 ohm impedance speakers. Caution, if your listening space is modest the 805 tube will generate heat.

Either will contribute to providing beautiful sound quality given the make up of your Audio system. . I believe that the Gryphon recommendation from George is a good option as well.
P.S.
Luxman 590 AX MK II pure class A. Intergrated but I believe that the preamplifier section can be bypassed.
Charles

Chord Qutest has variable line level output that can be set at 1v, 2v or 3v. If you can use single ended connections only it’s a pretty good DAC.  

I agree with checking out the W4S dacs.  I had 2 tube preamps in series and used the DAC to set the volume controls at 12 oclock.  It is easy to attenuate the dacs output.

A late update 😜 my hifi has been in a calm state so to speak the last years, the attenuators worked much better between the dac and pre than between the pre and power amp, but getting a Schiit Multibit which has maximum output of 2.0V RMS today I was wondering if it would be different, but not really, probably is the impedance between the dac and pre that is the more important one.

Have been using the 300b output more and more where I can control the gain to the power amp and that has been fine.

I got a Volumio Rivo a few months ago, sounds great on the usb output, using it with Roon.

A new dac in soon to come in, have chosen the Audial S5b, it has Output impedance 3 Ohm coupled by 23 uF capacitors, or 30 Ohm transformers coupled, if I remember correctly it has 2v output gain.

Later my plan is to get the StringAmp d220 power amp where the input gain has 3 different settings, so should find a great combination there.

That will probably be my last big purchase (for me) system vise.