Finally, a manufacturer that bridges dac to amp with a unity gain design optimizes both impedance and voltage relationships. The unity gain steps down the voltage and the voltage regulators are an essential function of the preamps. The systems voicing has been carefully considered and designed for. Dropping in a wildcard component will have unpredictable consequences. Many audiophiles go thru myriad system configurations and never fully understand what or why, what effects what. Play around with moving coil cartridges and SUT’s feeding into adjustable phono stages and one will get the idea of how complex and inter-related the system chain really is. There are 100 ways to get it wrong, that’s the fun and the education. Bottomless, always something else to learn. By adding a sub into my system it is much easier to hear which output tap is optimal on a tube amp, in fact it changed my preference. I’m certainly not saying the Denafrips products are end game but like Kinki, offer a high value, low relative cost, solution if the more organic sound of what tubes offer, is desirable in a ss configuration. Of course speaker matching, source, ect. are still ‘make or break’, but if one wants to explore and play a bit on the ‘dark side’, the Denafrips product catalog is fully fleshed and well thought out with all the goodies at attainable, every guy/gal, pricing. The niche they fill, they fill very well. What your ‘absolute sound’ is, is for you to decide. It is a hobby after all.
Here’s a final bit on the importance of voltage…
“If you think of your preamp as a source, and your power amp as a load, then you may consider that maximum power transfer can occur when the output impedance of the preamp matches the input impedance of the power amp. However, in high fidelity audio, it is typically considered optimum to have a source with low impedance connected to a load with high impedance. In that case, the power that can pass through the connection is limited by the higher impedance (so power transfer is not maximum), but the electrical voltage transfer is higher and less prone to corruption than if the impedances had been matched.”
To which almarg replies, “I'll just add a little emphasis to your mention in the first paragraph that power transfer is completely unimportant between preamp and power amp, as well as for any other line-level interfaces. What matters is transferring the signal VOLTAGE accurately”
Denafrips knows what function they need their preamps to provide to their amplifiers. Unity gain, a constant, considered, regulated voltage to impart the optimal audio signal and attain their desired voicing performance, would suggest they don’t wish or require excessive voltage gain at the amps input. If I connect the Benchmark Dac3 direct with 0 attenuation, I can begin to introduce a touch of distortion, a slight ‘digital glare’ that is why Benchmark usually suggest the 10 or 20db pads that yes changes the output impedance, but more important into the 22000k Hyperion, it’s 4V input voltage.