Which DAC as a preamp?

10 years ago I bought a Pass Labs XP-20 pre amp. After that I used my Meridian 800Daxv4 with inbuild volume control for a pre amp for many years. 

By adding a good pre amp you will hear the benefit of it directly. The precision of a pre amp is bigger than you can imagine. It gives both voices and instruments much more a shape. Beside that it creates better dynamics as well compared ot a Dac with an inbuild pre amp/volume control.

You need to learn people and also let them hear the differences by using a real pre amp. When you did not hear/audition it in a comparison it is not possible to understand it. There is still a lot unknown in the world of audio.

From someone who’s actually been designing preamp/amps for almost half a century instead of just reading the specs. 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HHl8F9amyY4

Thanks for all the input folks. I ended up with a good deal on a nice peach tree sonadac. Small form factor like the amps...triggers them by remote....running balanced cables...sounds great. I am breaking the amps in, but so far I am VERY impressed with the red dragon amps as well. This may be my favorite system of all time!

Have had the DDP-1 and the M6S. The latter blows most DACs (from Ayre, PS Audio, Chord) out of the water in terms of retrieving ambient cues and resolution of depth. It is dynamic, tremendously low in noise and listening fatigue, tonally balanced (if a smidge cooler than the Audio Alchemy), and genuinely believable, in a way few components ever are, I think there’s something special about this iteration of Musical Fidelity’s DAC. I have not tried the earlier ones but understand they’re not quite this special. I’m keeping it alongside my Lampizator; it’s that good. I keep coming back to that cathedral like soundstage and realism. 

SPL Director, dcs Elgar Plus, dcs Delius, NAD M51