Digital preamp?

J

Jazzman53

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Nov 25, 2021
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Savannah, GA
Does anyone use a digital preamp or recommend one, or better yet; know of a digital music server which includes a digital volume control?

I'm not up on the newest gear and just wondering what's out there.

For many years I have been streaming music from a Logitech Transporter. I'm pretty pleased with it but it's aging and no longer supported-- and I'm wondering what I would replace it with if it should ever crap out.

A feature I really like on the Transporter is that its digital out is volume controlled. Whereas; on all the other/newer servers I know of, the digital out is merely a pass thru (not volume controlled in the unit).

My system is tri-amp'd using a digital crossover. And in lieu of an analog preamp; I use the Transporter's digital volume control-- feeding its digital out directly into the digital in on my DBX Venu 360 DSP/Crossover. With this setup; I end up with a single D/A conversion coming out of the crossover to the amps. Whereas; if I used an analog preamp with the crossover; I would have (2) D/A conversions and (1) A/D conversion in the signal path.

Using the Transporter's volume control comes at a small cost in resolution. That is; the Transporter up-samples the stream to 24bit resolution and with the volume setting at 100% gain; the resolution remains 24bit. But every 6db of attenuation on the volume control consumes one bit of resolution. Even so; the resolution remains very good, even a low listening volume.

So; the choice of using either the analog preamp or the Transporter's volume control boils down to accepting slightly lower bit resolution with the digital volume control versus whatever distortion and loss occurs with (2) additional A/D conversions plus the path thru the analog preamp circuitry.

Finally; my question becomes:
Does anyone know of a digital music server with a volume-controlled digital output (not just a pass thru)?

Thanks,
Charlie
 
I believe Roon has a digital volume control within its interface. It will require the correct DAC, server, end point or whatever it requires to function. I have a few local audiophiles who use this volume control method.
 
I use a MiniDSP SHD Studio as a digital preamp. I gotta say it works very well in my system. I use the Denafrips DDD in front of it to switch digital sources and then it feeds two DACS, one for the amp feeding the Magnepans and one for the powered subs. It gives you: digital preamp (volume control), Dirac room calibration, digital crossover, and time alignment. I am blown away by the sound quality I’m getting and have compared it to the Classe Delta PRE and Parasound JC2 BP. It’s small and doesn’t have much curb appeal, but hey the sound is magnificent. I spent three days doing calibration though. Also, you will go crazy with sooooo many choices. Types of filters, slope, crossover frequency, time alignment, etc. etc. In the end you get four presets to play with.
 
Take a look at this thread: Lumin, Leedh’ing the way

I've seen some argument that volume processing in a streamer (like Leedh) doesn't constitute a pre-amp to some (maybe everyone who knows what they're talking about), I think because it has no gain nor additional inputs (just paraphrasing, hunt around a bit to see the arguments more knowledgeable folks make). But I think, like me, you're simply looking for a way to control the volume without adding another piece of hardware.

Iirc I had a PS Audio Directstream DAC going straight out to my amp(s) and it sounded plenty good to me, but who knows, maybe a "true" pre-amp would have sounded 1000x better. Shortly I'll be going direct out from the Lumin X1 to the amp so will see again 2x. It seems to be something a good number of people do, so I'm hoping at least one of them is less oblivious than me. Otherwise I'll be looking for an integrated in short order lol.
 
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