Amp/Preamp Asylum

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RE: It's pretty unique but not sure about that approach

Posted by cawson@onetel.com on July 17, 2023 at 03:27:24:
> I'm not a fan of the all-in-one approach with preamp and DAC combined

DACs seem to have matured to the extent that any worthwhile improvements may be long past the sell-by date of the amp it's built into.

Since DAC modules are now tiny and require very little from the power supply, I'm very happy not to have to pay for the extra case, power supply, sockets, cables, etc that a stand-alone DAC would require. In fact the DAC element within such a stand-alone box may represent only 25% of its total cost.

I'm thinking of moving away from an all-in-one to a 2 box solution where the low power demanding components (streamer, DAC and preamp) are in one box and the power amp in another. I have no concerns that the DAC board shares the box as long as it's a first-class DAC. The one in the M33 is the excellent ESS Sabre 9028, whereas the M66 will use the top-of-the-range 9038.