Can DAC with volume control act as Pre-amp?

I'm using a DAC as a pre-amp, the Benchmark DAC1 HDR. I couldn't hear any difference between the HDR and a Levinson pre-amp. I don't like the 1/2-wide 1U form factor most of the DACs like the HDR use, but it sounds so good at such a low price it was irresistible compared to the Levinson.

I also find some integrated DAC/pre-amps are significantly quieter than most combinations of discrete components. You can easily test this by having all of the equipment on and not playing any music. Listen for how much white noise is coming out of the tweeters. Of course, if your amps have a poor small signal SNR the line-stage noise level could be covered up. (I had this problem to a small degree.) Nonetheless, even with very efficient speakers it is possible to have dead silence from the tweeters with you ear inches away. Some people say it doesn't matter once you're playing music, but if we're all so fixated on detail, how could audible noise not matter?

The Benchmark DAC-1 HDR is a good example of the kind of unit that fills the OP's bill. Its functionality is just about what he would need if he went for the high end power amp at this point.

I would suggest he pay attention to the remote control functionality of the HDR ( it can be hard to see what you've selected ) and its sonics ( the emphasis on detail may be what he wants or it may not ). Given those are OK, it's a suitable choice.

Totally agree on that HDR remote control. The buttons are in illogical places and they are hard to read in dim light. It feels nice in your hand though.

Agree the Benchmark is near the top of the current best available and would add the Wyred4sound DAC2. You can use the digital volume control, a power supply the size of many amplifiers, and one of the most reasonably priced of the current state or near state of the art DAC's. Very highly reviewed. If, as someone mentioned, the sound suffers with reduced volume from reduced BIT count, add a preamp later. 6 Moons review listened direct to amp and commented with 24 BITs available, a few can be sacrificed without a discernable loss. Get one, listen, and if it's a problem use a preamp! Trust the ears.....

I'm using a nuForce DAC-9 as a DAC/preamp with a nuForce Stereo 8.5V3 poweramp, and it sounds terrific. I believe the volume control in the DAC-9 is "digitally controlled in the analog realm," whatever that entails.

From the little I've experimented it's appears to be my preferred setting over by-passing the internal volume control of the DAC-9 and instead going by the internal (digital) volume control via JRiver MC17's software player, but the final decision has yet to be made on this.

I'd go to some length in order to avoid a hardware preamp, and see no reason to avoid a digital volume control so long as the bitdepth in attenaution doesn't go below 24 bits - which most DAC's support.