What preamps outshine the Aesthetix Calypso?

$5K will buy you a used 2 chassis Modwright 36.5 LS/PS. I am using this preamp with my perfectwave dac and am very happy with it. Without the benefit of in home audition there is no way of knowing how you will like anything in your system compared to what you currently own. Case in point, I bought a Pass XP-10 based on recommendations in a thread similar to yours and did not like it (resold without a loss).

My strategy for components like this is to draw up a shortlist based on reviews, recommendations or may be something you heard in another system (this shortlist should include the Modwright IMO), then wait for a piece on the list to show up cheap used. Then you audition in house, and resell if you don't like. Works very well with speakers, amps and cables - not so much with digital stuff (too much innovation).

Ckoffend, a single box DAC/CD player will not have a full blown tube preamp build in. It will be a DAC with (tube based) output stage and simple volume control, usually digital. In the case of the romulus the volume control is "Relay-based switched resistor analog/digital design.". This typically is one (small) board, and will easily fit into the single box.

If you are even considering going the volume controlled DAC route, I suggest you look into the Zodiac Gold + Voltikus. This is a DAC/Preamp (only one analog input) with analog volume control that has been getting some very good press.

I will be getting one myself to do a shootout against my perfectwave DAC + Modwright Preamp. I got intruiged by the DAC + Volume control scenario after (reluctantly) comparing the Perfectwave DAC (digital) volume Control directly into my poweramps, with running it through the Modwrigth. Much to my surprise, the difference were very small, and this got me thinking if I get a better DAC with better (analog) volume I should be able to get better sound than what I currently have, and resale of the modwrigt would pay for the project. A huge plus is the fact that the Zodiac has one analog intput, because this is all I need for my HT bypass.

There are some dealers that will get you a 30 day trial so trying this is a risk free proposition.

That's easy. For this your DAC / Preamp needs to have a digital volume level display, and a step attenuator (the Zodiac Gold does). You can simply ask the maufacurer what volume level corresponds to "unity gain" (i.e. 0db attenuation).

You connect the HT mains to the analog input, set the DAC/Pre to this unity gain level and you're in business. In fact most HT bypasses in preamps work like this - they don't bypass the active circuit, but fix the level at unity gain.

If the maufacturer does not know you can find the unity gain level yourself using an SPL meter, but you don't even really have to. The manual will tell you the gain of the preamp and the Db increments. So if your preamp has 10db gain and 0.5 steps increments and has a scale of 0-140, you just set the level to 120.

Better still, you don't even have to be at precise unity gain, because after deciding what level to fix the DAC/preamp on, you next trim your channels on the MCH sourse (typically a SSP) using the SLP meter. This which would synch up all the chanels even if your DAC/Preamp is not at exact unity gain.