makes perfect sense to me, less electronics in between the signal. I use a benchmark dac1 as my pre-amp to feed my Aleph 3 amp and the synergy is incredible. I use an adcom cd player to feed my benchmark dac1 via co-axial cable and bypassing the adcom dac. my adcom cd player has the abily to be used as a pre-amp as well (has a volume control)but the benchmark is a much better dac then the one in the cd player. This is minialist 2 channel system. hope this helps, let us know which way you go.
tony
tony