I've owned my PWD ll DAC since it was just a poor little PWD and have used it both as a pre and with a pre. To me, while I could listen to the DAC as a preamp if I could not afford one or mine was being repaired, I strongly prefer with a preamp. The sound with a preamp is much fuller, robust, and dynamic sounding. I've used several preamps with it including an ARC Ref 3, a Gryphon Sonata Allegro, Pass Labs XP 20, and my current preamp the CODA CP. In every case it was a hands down win for the preamp. But the PWD ll does sound good by itself.
So if I were getting started in the High End, it would be easy to sell me on the PWD versus other DACs and the sales pitch would be, "With this DAC, look how much money you can save? And it includes a SOTA DAC and preamp all in one package" . This way I could get my custy to buy a better DAC then he would have gotten than purchasing a less expensive DAC and preamp together. And who knows, he might come back and buy a preamp latter?
Makes sense from a marketing standpoint doesn't it?
So if I were getting started in the High End, it would be easy to sell me on the PWD versus other DACs and the sales pitch would be, "With this DAC, look how much money you can save? And it includes a SOTA DAC and preamp all in one package" . This way I could get my custy to buy a better DAC then he would have gotten than purchasing a less expensive DAC and preamp together. And who knows, he might come back and buy a preamp latter?
Makes sense from a marketing standpoint doesn't it?