Dedicated pre-amp?

[Timcat]

That is a real thumbs up for the RME -ADI- 2.
Sounds like all the hype around this dac might well be justified

It most definitely is justified! To my ears, it sounds cleaner than either of my Myteks and produces a more stable and detailed image. Having said this, both Myteks are still very good and, crucially, they include good analogue sections (particularly the Manhattan II, which is a better analogue pre-amp than the BP26) and the RME does not.

 

[scotty38]

In these days of line level sources in "general terms" a pre-amp is a switch and an attenuator. You can put that anywhere essentially.....

 

[GT]

In these days of line level sources in "general terms" a pre-amp is a switch and an attenuator. You can put that anywhere essentially.....

Not all do. Good ones have a switch, a good quality analogue volume control, a gain stage or a buffer stage, or both, to provide a low impedance output to properly drive the power amplifier. Properly done this makes a huge difference.

 

[scotty38]

Yep it's why I said in "general terms" as I wasn't suggesting it was the be all and end all of preamps.

 

[Ruairi]

In the old sense of the word, because in years gone by, sources like tuners, tape players etc use to output small signal levels, so even in an early integrated amplifier there was still a preamp section. Nowadays with all sources being line level and much higher outputs (about 2-volts), Integrated amplifiers are basically a power amp with a volume control at the front end, effectively like a passive preamp into a power amplifier. This is a cheap way of making an integrated amplifier and saves the manufacturer money.

Having a separate active preamp section is still superior to a passive device providing volume control and there are several reasons for this. Regarding using the DAC as a preamp: there are just too many compromises. I have always found the best sound comes by fixing the DAC output on maximum or fixed output level then feeding this into a good preamplifier and controlling the volume level via your preamplifier.

Thanks again. Looks like I have more to do/buy to play around with.