Recommendation from dCS gear owners

Ok, I just sold a Delius. Have a BAT vk50se. I hear the 51se is better. Anyway, the 50se ain't bad. I am running a BAT VK75SE and Wilson wp6's. Here is my opinion. The Delius running straight to the amps at near full volume is pretty amazing. The transparency, the palpability is to die for. Everything that you like now I imagine. The 50se did help a little with depth and soundstage size-not a lot, a sutble thing for sure. A better power cord on the Delius made more of a diffence.

Now the 50se walks all over the Delius at lower listening levels. I never noticed it when I ran my Delius direct for awhile. Never could understand what everyone around here would say when those digital volume controls mess things up a little. All that transparency stays all the up/down the volume range. So, my vk50se always stayed in the chain once I had the preamp.

To me, and for my listening level preferences, the preamp makes a huge diff. Any of the 4 you mention above are great, just pick the one that best matches your amp.

XLR's cables here a must I think.

Hope that helps...

I have said several times in threads that controlling volume with a digital preamp is not the way to go. However, I would have thought DCS might be able to do it as well as a good preamp. Jfrech, has changed my mind. If DCS does not do it well at low volumes, probably no company does it well at low volumes. I have had a Camelot Uther DAC/ditial preamp (not quite in the same league as the DSC gear), and came to the same conclusions that Jfrech did.

Anyway, I would suggest an Ayre K-1x preamp if you can afford one. I have the K-3x, and it is... well amazing. I can only what the 1x sounds like.

My 2 Cents.

KF

Could you guys comment about digital preamps in this thread?

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?fcabl&1033654726

We would appreciate your wisdom.

Thanks,

KF

I have a dCS Purcell and Elgar and briefly ran the Elgar direct to my Classe CAM 350 power amps when a former preamp, a Pass X1, developed a temporary problem. Somehow the direct connection just missed something--it was utterly clear, but there was some quality of air and ambiance missing. Subtractively or additively missing? Who knows? But I do have a preamp recommendation for you you haven't mentioned, the Rowland Synergy IIi. It's very shallow (6 inches), which does wonders for heavy cable connections, demonstrates no solid state failings--extraordinary detail with no nasties--and is fully balanced, which means your dCS units will love it. (Between the Pass and Rowland I had a single-ended only tube-hybrid preamp, the Lamm L1, and neither the Elgar nor my Classe Omega SACD player sounded their best single-ended. By comparison, the sound off my turntable just glowed.) The Rowland is more expensive than the Ayre K-3x, which I compared it to, but to me the Rowland simply sounded warmer and richer in my system. Based on my clear preference for the Rowland, I didn't hunt down an Ayre K-1x, which in turn is more expensive than the Rowland. As to a comparison of the Pass X-1 and the Rowland, since there was a preamp between my use of them for almost a year, and a few other system changes, I can't say which one was superior, but they're both great.

well, thank you guys, I guess one more thing that I should also mention, the cable run from the preamp to the amp is 30ft I am ucrrently using Transparent XL balanced. now the question which preamp would function better in this set up? i.e. long IC and tupe amp at the end? all cabling are XLR by the way.