DCS Puccini into Lamm M 1.2 w/o preamp?

Rtn
indeed, but never underestimate world class digital either. A nice suit may not need a warm coat in summer.

I guess the results might also be dependent on the distance and cabling between the Puccini and the Lamm.

In my case, the Scarlatti is two feet away from the Boulder and uses Balanced interconnects. If there are much longer distances involved, and since the Lamms are unbalanced, a Pre-Amp in between for drive might be necessary.

But you won't know until you've tried both ways; though if distances are long, making sure you've got good cables on-hand to try both ways becomes a challenge.

I agree with Anupmc.

Puccini direct outperformed my Ref-3. The Ref-3 added some nice colorations, but when I compared Puccini vs Ref-3 on some piano passages and some old, Baroque instruments (viola da gamba etc), I concluded that those are just well ... colorations.

To my ears Puccini direct was just cloaser to the real thing.

I have bought yesterday the last TAS ... dCS Puccini & clock are on the front page, follows then a 8 full pages article which ends with these words:

Finall,y you really need to hear the Puccini/U-Clock driving a power amplifier directly to fully apreciate its clarity and resolving power. Even the best preamplifiersshave off some detail and diminish the sense of immediacy and transparency that are the Puccini's hallmarks

I have the Pucini & clock, as soon as I have time I will try to hear if there is a difference ;-)

I think Martin has 2 fundamental comparisons to make with the Lamm hybrid monoblocks:

1) DCS Direct vs. ARC Ref 3.
2) The winner of 1 vs. a Lamm preamp.

I will bet a Coke that the Lamm preamp will win.