Component Impact

I have had some spectacular SQ improvements with better preamps in the past, culminating in the elimination of the preamp altogether as suggested by Steve.

Just for kicks I reinserted a preamp into my multi channel system recently. It took me all of 15 seconds to hear I was inserting an active circuit and some cables in the chain that subtracted from the quality of the signal, and the device was back on audiogon where I bought it.

Ricred1, what pricerange DAC with VC are you looking at? Steve manufactures/sells one himself, so may be he refrains from answering to avoid perception of conflict of interest. I personally have been researching and playing with DAC + VC with and without preamps for quite some time so I can give you a pretty good lay of the land and guidance if I better understand your parametes. What digital source(s) are you planning to use?

Depends on what school of volume control thought you subscribe to.

School 1 says all digital attenuation over say 6dB degrades the signal and is to be avoided (Steve N. is a proponent of this school).

School 2 says unless you are doing more than say 30dB attenuation you are absolutely fine with digital VC, and in fact, it is better than analog, because you avoid an analog circuit (advocates of are PS audio and Bel Canto).

My personal experience is consistent with school 2. I am not claiming school 2 is right and 1 is wrong. I'm just reporting my personal observations.

So first, if you need significant amount of attenuation (over 30dB) you probably need an analog VC, whether you're school 1 or 2.

There are three contenders in the $5K price range with analog (or hybrid) VC:

Empirical Audio Overdrive SE
Weiss 202 (Hybrid)
Aesthetix Pandora (Tube - MSRP 6K / street price 5K)

Note that the Overdrive has no remote control. With PC audio you can do coarse setting analog on the DAC, and do fine grain setting digital in your music server (say amarra or JRiver). With a CD player as source, this is a problem.

If you subscribe to school 2, and don't need more than 30dB attenuation, your options increase. Three highly regarded contenders with digital VC are:

PS audio Perfectwave DAC MKII
Berkely Alpha II
Bel Canto VB3.5

There are other threads on this subject you can read up on. I'm sure I missed a few.

Fully support Steve's suggestion to listen to a few DACs and make up your mind.

Have fun!