It really depends on the DAC. I had a PS Audio DSD which is an awesome DAC but the volume control in it is not strong. There are a couple reasons for this, but it was inferior to my preamps.
I have since moved to Chord and Rockna DACs and the volume control in them is completely different. Right now, going direct from the Hugo 2 or Wavelight into my amps from DAC is dramatically better than the Schiit preamp I currently have in the system.
An LTA Ultralinear with a Chord Hugo 2 would easily be on budget and will sound amazing.
That being said, the UL integrated is not even close to inferior. The line stage in it is tremendous and the volume control is a superb R2R. An Ultralinear Integrated with a DAC like the Chord Qutest which would be brilliant.
In both cases, we could definitely keep you on budget for new gear.
I have since moved to Chord and Rockna DACs and the volume control in them is completely different. Right now, going direct from the Hugo 2 or Wavelight into my amps from DAC is dramatically better than the Schiit preamp I currently have in the system.
An LTA Ultralinear with a Chord Hugo 2 would easily be on budget and will sound amazing.
That being said, the UL integrated is not even close to inferior. The line stage in it is tremendous and the volume control is a superb R2R. An Ultralinear Integrated with a DAC like the Chord Qutest which would be brilliant.
In both cases, we could definitely keep you on budget for new gear.