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DACs With Killer Built-In Preamps

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I see a lot of DACs with volume controls with the ability to act as a preamp. The Audio Research Reference Dac/Digital Media Bridge ($15k) has a volume control and a lot of innards of its Reference 5SE preamp...which makes for a very serious preamp section on that DAC.

Are there any DACs with voulume controls under $7k that can compete with top-tier preamps?
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128x128mitch4t
grannyring's avatar
grannyring
6,464 posts
 
Mlapenta

Great way to o about it!

AudioL, you would need to ask Paul about that, but I think he will build one fully balanced.
audiolabyrinth's avatar
audiolabyrinth
4,555 posts
 
@ Grannyring, Thankyou.
charles1dad's avatar
charles1dad
10,249 posts
 
Grannyring,
Your revised impressions over a long term listening period don't surprise me. I'm one of those who find systems with high quality active linestages sound more realistic and natural. You missed the full body that's present in live instruments and voices.
Regards,
photonman
96 posts
 
Bryston and Cyrus meet your criteria
charles1dad's avatar
charles1dad
10,249 posts
 
Grannyring,
It`s interesting reading your post from 4/02/13 and then reading Tmorosk`s post on 4/03/13(5 of 6 listeners returning to an active linestage after a period of time). Long term evaluation impressions are valuable,the ear/brain can be fooled over the short term sometimes.I don`t doubt for a second that your sound is better with the Dude back in your system.Thanks for sharing this experience.
Charles,
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