McIntosh DS200

They specifically call it a "streaming DAC" so seemingly not intended to be used as a transport with separate outboard DAC. 

McIntosh doesn't seem to like the idea of a pure digital streaming transport for whatever reason. Off the top of my head I can think of their old MS300 music server, the MB50 streaming player, the MB100 media bridge, and the more recent MS500 streamer, and if I recall correctly they all have onboard DAC with analog outputs. A few of them may offer digital outs but the focus really seems to be on using them as a streaming DAC with the option of also using their digital inputs with an external CD transport. I don't know why McIntosh is against doing a pure streaming transport but that really does seem to be the case.

@mattsca I also dismissed this DS200 as soon as I saw they don’t have any digital output. I was hoping McIntosh would release a Streamer (either with built in DAC or pure transport) that can be connected to an external DAC.

The reason is, I own a MA12000 integrated amp which has an "upgradeable" DA2 build in. The DA2 DAC sound was decent.

However, recently I bought the MCD12000 (SACD/Reference DAC), and the Reference DAC in the MCD12000 is way much better than the DA2 in the MA12000.

So I was hoping I can purchase a McIntosh streamer which will run through the DAC in the MCD12000.

Well, I will wait another year or so... maybe at that time, McIntosh will issue a Reference class streamer as either a transport only (to feed into the reference class DAC in my MCD12000

or a streamer with built-in Reference class DAC, so I can just use the balanced analog out into the MA12000 balanced analog in.

It says you can use it as a volume control and but it does not say much about the preamp volume control section.  I have a Mcintosh D1100 and am wondering how it would compare to the DS200

I’m with the OP.  The company knows that audiophiles love to play with different equipment.  It’s also stupid for their business, as Mac customers have great brand loyalty, and they could market a megabucks Mac DAC to them down the road.  Mac customers tend not to want all in one solutions as much as customers of a certain audio company whose name starts with “B”.

Mahler,

“Mac customers tend not to want all in one solutions as much as customers of a certain audio company whose name starts with “B”.”

How do you square that thought with the enduring popularity of McIntosh integrated amps, preamps with DACs and MM/MC phono built in, and even a receiver model that’s never gone out of production?  What company with B?