Berkeley DAC into preamp or amp ?

Ral - sorry, I should have mentioned that. Moderately high volumes were in the 50 range. I noticed no deterioration of the sound at lower levels, but then again, I rarely listen at those volumes.

I recently tried the Berkeley running directly into the amp. My experience has been that such a setup always flattens the depth dimension of the soundstage, and this was no exception. In my opinion, any minor improvements over an excellent preamp (immediacy and such) are not worth what I consider to be an unacceptable compromise. In my case, I need the preamp for vinyl in any event. The exercise simply proved what I had heard on numerous 'direct feed' systems previously.