@milpai The preamp stage and volume control in the unit are of very high quality, and it can also be disabled to set the unit up as a standalone line level DAC. These features, are additive and do not take away from the fact that for $7,125, the DAC 200's DAC section is well worth it. the preamp stage can accommodate one set of analog inputs for a turntable or such, so the unit is designed with minimalism in mind.
But even if it didnt have the preamp stage and volume control, I would still highly recommend it. I have compared the volume controls of other DAC, for example the Mola Mola Tambaqui and PS Audio DirectStream, and they are noisy, fatiguing, and brittle sounding compared to the DAC 200. Yes, more and more DACs are employing volume controls, but few aside from the DAC 200 do it right (at least in the up to $15K price range).