Please help to chose Integrated amp Diablo 300 , darTZeel CTH-8550 Or ....

I haven't heard a DAC as a preamp that I prefer over a preamp yet. To my ears, in my system,  dynamics and detail suffer whenever I tried a DAC direct.

Good suggestion,  but how would I do it on Dartzeel, shroud I put it in to home theater bypass mode ?  O no how can I live without pleasure control :)


i actually had Dave connected straight to bhk 250 and it indeed sounded pretty good with stock tubes, I think With  tube rolling one could achieve desirable sound .

Good suggestion,  but how would I do it on Dartzeel, shroud I put it in to home theater bypass mode ?  O no how can I live without pleasure control :)


i actually had Dave connected straight to bhk 250 and it indeed sounded pretty good with stock tubes, I think With  tube rolling one could achieve desirable sound .

Just tried setting amp in bypass mode and dac as digital preamp .

sound became too edgy, imaging got changed and overall I did not enjoy the sound of it , it sounds much nicer with more Dynamics when going in to preamp if integrated amp whatever that mode is called :) , at least it was easy to try and go back to original config . 

I am using my chord dave on two sources, an aurender and my
onkyo and plinius cd player. I use my vitus preamp on my
aurender and dave preamp on my cd player. I think you
have to give it time to settle in or break in its preamp mode
since it took mine quite a long time to settle in.. i like it for
its more forward presentation with thicker density on vocals.