Preamps built Into DACs

Preamps, great active preamps, are a must for me. Without it music is
simply not as musical to me. So preamp builders please build on! To my
ears a proper stereo system needs a great active tubed preamp.

To me, I would be wasting money on my system not having my active tube
preamp. So yes, stop putting a volume knob on all those DAC's so when I
buy one I'm not wasting money on that volume knob.

To each his/her own and this is just my experience and preference. Listen
on!

Many have ditched very expensive preamps for a well implemented volume control in the DAC(including me). Considering the amount of loss incurred in an analog cable and running signal through additional circuits I am not surprised.

To me there are no sacred cows in where to put the volume control (which is what we are really talking about here). I used tube pre, solid state pre and now the volume control in the DAC. Then there is the whole debate about analog VC and digital VC in the DAC.

I think the ideal VC implementation would be a DAC with a switch for 0db, -10db, -20db, -30db, -40db attenuation in the analog domain to match DAC output level with speaker sensitivity and desired volume level for the listening session, and then a digital remote control to attenuate up to an additional -20db. Wonder why no one has build this.

If you have just digital sources there is probably no good technical reason to have a pre-amp. I'm sure there are very good dac with volume controls out there. Maybe to introduce tubes in the pre-amp if a tube sound only fan.

Only good reason is sound! Not any other reason.

Generally speaking in audio systems I prefer simplicity as less is often more. But this preference while good in theory(fewer boxes,power cables,IC etc.)takes a back seat to sound quality-music reproduction. We all will have different outcomes and opinions, no surprises there.

Grannyring my experiences mirrors yours, the better quality active linestages(premium tube models in my case) just sound much better, more complete and realistic to my ears. Those who find DACs with intergrated VC to their liking, congratulations and continued good listening.They just don`t cut it for me.
Regards to all.