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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 6 responses by ranperry

ranperry
13 posts
 
I got the DAC2 and had the Classe CP-65 pre. To make a long story short, I sold the Classe and I am going directly to the amps (bel canto ref 1000). If you do not need analog inputs and the only source is a PC / Transport, you can sure get rid of the preamp.
ranperry
13 posts
 
For my ears, less grainy and more detailed presentation regardless of the volume.
ranperry
13 posts
 
I am using the S/PDIF output from a M-Audio Audiophile 192 sound card. Works great.
ranperry
13 posts
 
I can't. Wyred4Sound does not provide their proprietary drivers for Linux. Also, I prefer using Linux as I get Bit Perfect sound, bypassing the OSs mixer altogether. USB audio is not mature yet (this is from a hardware engineer perspective). Once DAC manufactures will start using the standard audio protocol in USB 2 and USB 3 I may give it a try. The problem is that Microsoft does not have native hi res support and Apple's own implementation is lacking. Maybe in a few years....
ranperry
13 posts
 
I am using MPD on the server and GMPC (ubuntu desktop) and MPDroid (Motorola Xoom) to control my music. Can you control the volume within Jriver? How can you tell that it bypasses the mixer?

ranperry
13 posts
 
Thanks! I have little experience with Windows for media services and I am happy to see that this is actually a possibility in Windows. I hope future products / updates from W4S will support USB 2.0 audio out of the box without the proprietary drives.
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