pre-amp vs dac straight to amps

Ummmm, may I suggest that you try out the DAC -> Amp setup and see for yourself how it sounds? I connected my Oppo BDP-93 straight into my Butler amp when my pre-pro was being updated at the factory and I found the sound to be surprisingly good.

I no longer have an analog source, so this setup works out quite well for me in a pinch...

-RW-

i really wanted to go without a pre and tried hard to make sense of it. in the end....i couldn't. my system sounded better with a well matched pre.

it also sounded worse with a not so well matched pre (i tried a few).

no way around trying it for yourself.....but don't be a one and done. try a few a see what happens. it's all about synergy and working well together....or sometimes not.

Aside from jitter, preamp distortion noise and compression is the MOST detrimental thing is most systems IME. Elimination of the pre is a huge win.

Depending on how you do this, however, the results can vary widely. I do not recommend using a standard DAC line-out and then using digital volume to reduce the volume. This will degrade the SQ significantly. I have found that more than about -10dB starts to degrade the SQ. Less than that is okay, but this is not enough to use ONLY digital volume. A combination of manual analog volume and digital volume is fine.

So, the next challenge is finding a DAC with a decent volume control technology. In my book there are only two that are decent: Transformer-based attenuation and D/A reference voltage control. Active gain-control and resistive attenuation dont cut-it.

Steve N.

I don't know the technical reasons for my own preferences but my pre amp adds a lot to the overall sound I get. I find that the tubes my pre uses are very good at giving my sound big Tone as I call it a certain full rich and lush at times quality that I like. I have owned an ARC pre and found it to be fairly transparent not adding or limiting much. AS always it coimes down to system synergy and personal preferences.