Will DAC always sound better going straight into a Power Amplifier?

i have recently been comparing dac thru passive resistor vol control/ thru cj preamp and vintage recapped rotel rc03. it sounds fast thru passive, but compared with thru rotel it sounds thin and the dac direct also seems to lack something

@larsman 

The word ’always’ is often good to avoid, but from my experience, it ain’t necessarily so. I had an MSB ’Analog DAC’/volume control going directly into my MSB power amp and the sound was superb. I later got a Herron Audio tube preamp and put that in between the DAC and the power amp, and the sound improved considerably from that.

Yes, words such as “always”, “never “ and “best” are rarely applicable in audio topic discussions. Far too many variables exist to make those terms meaningful. I would just say that based on my listening and observations that a “high” quality preamplifier more often than not contributes to improved sound quality.

In a situation such as @willgolf’s I can see this as an exception to my generally speaking scenarios. The Lampizator Horizon exceeding the Pacific DAC is quite the accomplishment. Congratulations @willgolf .

Charles

 normal modern DAC will output at min. 2v RCA or min.4v balanced. That is equal to a normal preamp output. Forgetting weird impedance mismatches for the moment, the only job left for the preamp is attenuation. If the DAC has a good relay based rather than lossy digital attenuator, there is nothing left for the preamp to do other than add distortion. If you do have an impedance mismatch, get a passive attenuator

I run direct and completely agree with this - but how does a passive attenuator correct an impedance mismatch? I thought that the problem with passives was that they do not correct an impedance issue the way active preamps do - even unity gain/buffers only preamps. 

 

@majorc,

you are right, however: a passive avoids the additional lossiness of a digital attenuator. Running the Dac at max output reduces the impact of the mismatch

I use an ifi idsd dac micro which has the option of running in direct mode or 2 options for preamp mode - 1 with 0 gain and 1 with gain - when in preamp mode there volume control nob in enabled - is it safe to assume that that is an analog volume control - and if so serve the same role as a passive?