DAC/w Volume control + Power amp or DAC + Integrated?

arron

search - there are several recent threads that cover the territory you are inquiring about

short answer is digital volume control as part of the dac has certain compromises and may affect sound quality

i personally would use a fixed output dac feeding an integrated amp with its own analog volume control (not to mention additional inputs for other sources)... lta makes integrated models

czar/arron

do you need remote control for volume?

what are the speakers you plan to drive?

arron

Speakers will be Spatial audio Sapphire M3 open baffle.

Remote volume is a plus but not a must.

If I can not afford LTA Ultralinear int then I’m open to any amplifiers out there.
Raven nighthawk, Devialet 200, Dynaco ST70, Luxman 550s come to mind.

i have the m3 sapphires, have run these tremendous speakers with a wide variety of amps

key point of note is that the towering strength of the m3s’s is their amazingly full, natural, impactful bass imparted by clayton’s open baffle design... followed then by their excellent, open treble and full bodied dimensional midrange

that being said, these speakers have 4x 15 in woofers, presenting a load of 4 ohms in the bass region despite a seemingly quite efficient 93 db/w/m... thus they are actually quite a challenge for many tube amps (read, most lower powered, inexpensive ones) to deliver the current and damping factor (woofer control) needed to reproduce the truly wonderful bass response, the speakers’ key strength

as such, i recommend you get a high quality ss integrated amp with built in onboard dac, if you need to stay on a tight budget - imho it is the most cost effective path of excellent sound using these speakers

a lower powered current generation hegel (h95 or h120), or a small devialet (which i have - the 120 - which drives the m3s’s brilliantly), or a similar offering from ps audio or others...

https://www.overtureav.com/audio/integrated-amplifiers/hegel-integrated-amplifiers/hegel-h95/

https://www.usaudiomart.com/details/649704107-devialet-expert-120/

at $2000-2400 for hegel (new) or devialet (used) above, i promise you will have a hard time beating it with $4000-5000 of standalone dacs and tube amps... digital volume controlled dac or not :)

you have wisely chosen such truly outstanding speakers... but a tube amp on a budget is not the right answer to make them sing at their best

good luck, have fun

arron

Jiss49. Do you think tube integrateds don’t have enough juice for M3 Sapphire? Clayton at Spatial claims that low powered tube works nicely though.

a tube amp can certainly drive m3 sapphires but it needs to be a relatively powerful tube amp imo and one that has 4 ohm taps -- if you have a medium to large room

one must not generalize about what it takes drive spatials... those who do don’t know the line...

- m5 sapphire is 8 ohm load, one 15 in woofer on each side 92 db/w/m eff
- m3 sapphires is 4 ohm load, two 15 in woofers on each side 92 db/w/m eff
- x5 is 8 ohm load, two 12 in woofers but with self powered built in sub for the lower woofer, 97 db eff 8 ohm load as seen by your outboard amp
- x3 same as x5 except with larger 15 in internally driven woofer instead of the 12 in unit

so the m3 is the most challenging of the lot... m5 you lose 2 woofers and their output, but sure, it is easier to drive by a tube amp as impedance much more friendly at 8 ohms

x3/5 different can of worms totally - your amp only sees the tweeter and one 12 in woofer... so, easy-breezy to drive above the low pass filter cut off by a connected tube amp, the internal solid state amp doing all the heavy lifting in the low frequencies where the current draw and damping factor is most needed - flea watt amps thus CAN apply for the job successfully here

clayton has indeed used the 13 wpc lta zotl tube amp to drive m3 sapphires at audio shows, but it should be noted that

a) the lta’s are NOT everyday transformer based tube amps... the lta’s use a trick power supply and no output transformers and are a special case and can grip the m3’s woofers especially well

b) note that this set up is being played in a small room, two speakers stradding a single wide equipment rack, side and rear walls nearby... listening was semi nearfield

https://www.lineartubeaudio.com/products/spatial-m3-lampizator-amber3-lta-z10-integrated-caf-system