pre-amp vs dac straight to amps

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.

I have used Perfectwave DAC digital volume controls and bel canto, and both are excellent. I took out a 10K tube preamp myself. Waste of money.

I have owned and checked out quite a few DAC's and tried them all direct and via a pre-amp. Which is better varies on the DAC and I can find no commonality to give a definite answer - you need to suck it and see.

I personally haven't noticed on the DAC's that are better direct connected greater than 10db volume reduction led to an degradation in quality. I well recall checking this out on a very transparent reference system (using the reference DAC of that system - a PDX which does sound better direct connected) with some very experienced audiophiles and none of us could detect a difference with any amount of volume reduction.

Again my suggestion is to check it out for yourself.

Thanks
Bill

Greater than 10dB degadation is only with software controlled volume.

Often digital volume circuits in DACs are actually digitally controlled analog circuits. There are many off-the-shelf chips that do this.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

I'm running my Wadia 121 DAC direct into a Bel Canto amp and it sounds great. Granted, the only preamp I tried in this system was a Rotel RC 995, so I can't comment on how it would sound with a seriously high-end preamp. I do know that Wadia makes a big pitch in the manual not to use a preamp. I posted the exact language in another thread. As always, YMMV.