Wyred4Sound Dac-2 vs Preamp and separate DAC


I’m about to upgrade to either the Wyred4Sound DAC-2 to use as a Preamp/Dac or possibly considering a used Classe Audio CP-60 and Wyred4sound DAC-1. If I’m only going to use a CD transport and USB to play lossless files is there any advantage to having the separate Preamp/DAC setup. I would personally think the Dac-2 would be the cleaner path but I’m a little worried about the digital volume control. Any opinions welcome. Preamp also doesn’t have to be Classe but some type of balanced pre along those lines.
r_garland

Showing 1 response by agb100

There is no resolution loss until you go way below 40 on the W4S DAC-2. If you have a problem it's not the dac but something else in your system. First, you need to match levels. My experience is that going direct to amp is far superior on every level than going through any dedicated preamp.

W4S DAC2 is not a passive preamp, but an active line stage of very high purity. Without inserting a number of switches and pots, interconnects and more active components to service all these, the clarity without an external preamp should be evident to all. The DAC2 is probably amongst one of the finest dacs one can get and the built in preamp certainly makes it a great value.

As a backup to testing, I use an Audez'e LCD-2 with Moon Silver Dragon wires to directly connect to the DAC2's phono outputs. If you have a higher resolution test setup, I'm all ears.