I struggled with this issue but decided with DAC/DSD changing all the time, sticking with good tube pre-amp and separate dac. that is for main rig, for the pc setup in office, DAC into active speakers does it for me.
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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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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