DACs With Killer Built-In Preamps

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Be careful, I understand the Killer Dacs are claiming old
school dyed-in-the-wool audiophiles by the hundreds. Don't
get too close, or you could be next.
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Out of a half dozen friends that went preampless , only one didn't go back after a while .

IME, having a stepped attenuator installed into the input stage of my amplifier gave me the best sound I heard in my system. I've tried both active and passive preamps, both colored the sound more. I've actually had increased dynamics, soundstaging, and frequency extension this way. No thinning of sound often encountered with passive preamps and no veiling of sound often heard with active preamps. Sorry for off topic remark.

Getting back to OP question, a friend of mine got the Lampizator DAC which uses computer controlled resistor based volume control. Sounds quality of the DAC is excellent.

Grannyring, I went the other direction. I never found a preamp below $10K (never tried one over $10K) that bested a well implemented VC in the DAC and hence always ended up selling the preamp. Then a trade in Ref5SE showed up and I gave the preamp one last ditch try. It beat the crap out the DAC VC. I think the reality is both DAC + VC and preamp price/performance continues to improve. My hypothesis is the Ref5SE level of performance would set you back >20K just two years ago, but this level preamp will handily beat the preamp-less route.

Edorr, my fully tricked out Dude preamp sounds better than the Ref5 and according to some past Ref 25th Anniv owners, better than that preamp. Not a question of preamp quality, just synergy and what I have put together in my home.