I agree that it depends on the implementation. I’ve only come across a few DACs whose volume controls were worthy of being plugged direct into an amp. Some of my favorites here are the T+A SDV 3100 HV (which in all fairness has a true preamp stage built in), the T+A DAC 200 (its bypassable preamp stage is equivalent to a $3-5K standalone preamp), and the Aurender A20/A30. In full transparency, I am a dealer for both T+A and Aurender. That said, I have had many DACs on my floor and owned many personally before I became a dealer. Besides the older Modwright Transporter or Modwright-modded Cambridge CXN V2, I’ve never found any other DAC with a volume control less than $15K that sounded optimal without a separate preamp. This included a few Lampizator units, the PS Audio DirectStream, and the Mola Mola Tambaqui. All of those sounded worse, with the Tambaqui sounding significantly worse without a standalone preamp in the chain.
DAC DIRECT IN TO AMPLIFIER OR TO PREAMPLIFIER
For the longest time, I believed that the best preamplifier is no preamplifier. Eliminating a component from the audio chain would yield less distortion & greater purity.
Recently, I have had reason to re-think my logic on the matter - and I am (I think) changing my mind. Better said, assuming that the preamplifier in the component you are using (in my case, a DAC) can produce 95% or greater quality sound compared to the preamplifier component, then no preamplifier is the best option. The 5% represents the (estimated) loss of fidelity in adding another set of interconnects.
That said, most DACs do not have an outstanding preamplifier built in. I think most have average passive attenuators, and the better DACs have active preamplifiers that are very good - but not as good as a quality preamplifier.
What are your thoughts?
Showing 3 responses by blisshifi
Good call @worldwidewholesales. It might be worth digging into why this is with a little more explanation, and others like @bigkidz may be able to better articulate. Inside a DAC, there is of course an analog conversion and output stage. In most cases, the job of that is to output a signal at line level with a specific voltage and impedance. Many amplifiers benefit from not just a higher gain coming from the source or preamp, but both a quality signal preamplified with quality voltage and current and matching impedance. When this is done well in a DAC and an amplifier is matched with it, there is a chance for magic to happen, but the chances of that are very slim. While many people who are in the “DAC to Amp” camp believe in the “less is more” philosophy, that a preamp is a straight wire that doesn’t inhibit anything, or doesn’t believe in a preamp at all, they are potentially depriving themselves of the benefits of a properly preamplified signal as well as a quality attenuator that does not add noise to the chain. In my opinion, I would always opt for the properly preamplified signal and accommodate a light level of noise (mostly inaudible) vs risking the mismatch or subpar signal delivery to attain a lower noise floor.
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@ghdprentice Perhaps… but I am in the camp of associating T+A with ultra high end. The SDV 3100 HV is a $38,750 component. While T+A does offer the standalone reference DAC at $36,500, they integrate the power supplies, analog output and volume control from their $22K reference preamp for an additional $2,250 into the SDV. The SDV unit does have a lesser feature set than the dedicated preamp - less inputs and outputs; no option for built in phono, no room correction or EQ - all so it can fit in one chassis, but also to reduce any culprits that may result from combining analog and digital circuits closely together. I am a big believer of isolation and agree that typically it is best to have separate circuits in separate chassis’, but in a few manifestations such as the SDV 3100 HV, I think world class results are possible in integrated offerings. |