DCS Puccini into Lamm M 1.2 w/o preamp?

All the dCS units I have seen employ digital volume controls. If you have one keep in mind that as you reduce the volume, you are also reducing the resolution. That is why its often a good idea to consider a preamp with a good analog volume control. That will not rob you of resolution and you will also get some interconnect cable control from the line stage of the preamp.

Hi Atmasphere,

I have exactly the same worries as yours. However, some posts (unfortunately I do not find them anymore) and two reviews were quite favorable to a hook up the DCS directly to the power amps. As I do not use my turntable or other non-digital anymore I wouldn't need my preamp anymore, but I'm not sure whether the output of the DCS will work fine with the input of the Lamm.

Regards
Martin

Martin, I have the Puccinni and had to drive my Ayre MX-R amps directly while my Ayre K5xe was being upgraded for MP. I must tell you that the Puccinni direct to my amps does not hold a candle to the performance I get with my Ayre pre amp. Now I am using SS and you have tube. You may like the direct sound. To my ears the sound was colder and more clinical and I lost the more musical sound I had with the Ayre. The sound direct from the DCS wasn't bad but again IMO it was not nearly as good as with the K5xe.

From what I have read that is a really nice pre amp you have there and I would suggest that you keep it and do your own listening before you sell the ARC. Please give it some time too. Even though your only source is the DCS you may get the best sound letting you ARC drive the Lamn.

I hope this helps.

I don't know if this is of any help to you or not, but my friend used to use an ARC Ref. 3 with his Lamm M2.2s, and the sound is awesome. I recommend that you give it a shot when you get your Lamm amps.

(I say "used to" use, because he just upgraded to the ARC Ref. 5, which is really a slightly more refined Ref. 3, at least to my ears.)

BTW, If you wish to sell your Ref. 3 "dirt cheap", feel free to drop me a line.
(Yeah, this economy has me broke at the moment, or else I would have bought my friends Ref. 3!)
;-)

Martin, FWIW we have customers that have the dCS and they own our preamp for the volume control even though they could go direct. I think the 'cold and clinical' comment above was the reason our customers got a preamp. I don't think the preamp warmed things up due to its sound, I think the dCS made things sound colder through poor interconnect cable control and a digital volume control.