DCS Puccini into Lamm M 1.2 w/o preamp?

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.

@Bjbcab

uinfortunately the Parasound do not play in the same league as your Ayre MX-R. Before getting the Puccini I used a Emmlabs CDSD/DCC2 as my digital source and pre. I always found the sound with my current speakers a bit lean, thats why I added the Ref 3 which added some weight and body to the sound. However, now that I want to change the power amps (the Lamm or a pair of Pass XA 100.5 are on the shortlist) I hope to get a more balanced sound even w/o a pre-amp. I Think your Ayre are just to perfect to need any sonic "adiustment" even if the Ref 3 is said to be a very neutral pre.

@Atmasphere
I wouldn't describe neither the Parasound nor the Isophon Cassiano D as cold or clinical, however, I feel that I wand a more "involving" sound with a bit more body. I guess that my Parasound just isn't the perfect match to the speakers (though most people told me that the currebnt sound is very well balanced).

That's why I want to change my amplifers to Pass XA or Lamm (I understand that the Lamm will have even more the "involving tube-like sound" however, at the expense of loosing some transparency and trebel resolution towards the Pass).

@Anupmc
Last weekend I made some comparisons between running the DCS balanced to the REF3 and then balanced into the Parasound and feeding the Parasounds directly by the DCS (balanced cables have been Straight Wire Crescendo and Virtuoso H).

I was quite astonished about the result: the sound feeding the Parasounds directly by the DCS was even more transparent and "direct". On the other side the sound lost a bit of its midrange warmth and body. However, in my opinion the pros outbalanced the cons.

@Chadeffect
Completely agree. In my comparison I used the 2V output of the Puccini which worked just fine (at normal listening levels the Puccini's volume control was around -35db and I did not hear any loss of resolution at all).