I'm very happy with the PS Audio Directstream DAC. It is my first DAC. The DAC sofware can be updated by downloading newer versions from PS Audio.
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Bel Canto DACs- the 2.5, 2.7, 3.5, 3.7 all have built in preAmps with volume control. Bel Canto deserve more accolades, but they dont advertise much so are less well known. they use proprietary super low distortion clocks, are accurate, musical, fast, balanced. I didnt see a budget listed for your DAC, but you can get a DAC 2.5 for a paltry $900, or a TOTL DAC 3.7 (which i have) for $2500. either way, I doubt you will ever look back. |
"Which DAC as a preamp?" Go for one that has settable max analogue gain output, so you can use it’s digital volume control in the top 25% part of it’s range. This way your sure of not "Bit Stripping". Just like Wadia and Mark Levinson do on their Flagship models. Today I know M1 Bricasti has it, there must be others as well, these are the ones I would go with as they know about "bit stripping" that's why it’s introduced. As the Wadia attached shows. https://ibb.co/d69hD9 Cheers George |
I owned sources who has a pre amp inside. All should get out of the habit of saying this. It should be "I have a source with digital domain volume control" As "most" sources that have volume controls done in the digital domain DO NOT have preamps in them, they have standard low impedance output buffers. No preamplifiers! Only if the specs of the source say that it can output more than say 6v to say 20v can you say it has a preamp which pre amplifies. If it’s below 6v then it’s just a dac/cdp that happens to have a digital domain volume control with output buffer with or without some small amount of gain, to bring it up to Redbook standard of 2v some kick it a little higher 3 or 4v. Cheers George |
- 45 posts total