The digital volume control seems like such a deal breaker.
If you pay something in the neighborhood of $3k, for the sake of hi-fi, only to watch the accuracy of the system go away dramatically with a digital volume knob, it seems a shame.
I think that the $400 DacMagic paired with a midfi preamp (altogether, less than $1k) would sound better than a $3k DAC that uses a digital volume knob.
If you pay something in the neighborhood of $3k, for the sake of hi-fi, only to watch the accuracy of the system go away dramatically with a digital volume knob, it seems a shame.
I think that the $400 DacMagic paired with a midfi preamp (altogether, less than $1k) would sound better than a $3k DAC that uses a digital volume knob.