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DACs With Killer Built-In Preamps

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I see a lot of DACs with volume controls with the ability to act as a preamp. The Audio Research Reference Dac/Digital Media Bridge ($15k) has a volume control and a lot of innards of its Reference 5SE preamp...which makes for a very serious preamp section on that DAC.

Are there any DACs with voulume controls under $7k that can compete with top-tier preamps?
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128x128mitch4t
audiolabyrinth's avatar
audiolabyrinth
4,555 posts
 
@ Grannyring, Hi, Is Dude making a unit that has balanced inputs yet?,,, Cheers.
mlapenta
104 posts
 
I struggled with this issue but decided with DAC/DSD changing all the time, sticking with good tube pre-amp and separate dac. that is for main rig, for the pc setup in office, DAC into active speakers does it for me.
grannyring's avatar
grannyring
6,442 posts
 
Mlapenta

Great way to o about it!

AudioL, you would need to ask Paul about that, but I think he will build one fully balanced.
audiolabyrinth's avatar
audiolabyrinth
4,555 posts
 
@ Grannyring, Thankyou.
charles1dad's avatar
charles1dad
10,239 posts
 
Grannyring,
Your revised impressions over a long term listening period don't surprise me. I'm one of those who find systems with high quality active linestages sound more realistic and natural. You missed the full body that's present in live instruments and voices.
Regards,
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