Vegas - The analog section of the DAC is very important to achieving balance, dynamics and an analog quality. Detail, imaging and slam are mostly a result of lowering jitter in the digital sections.
Important analog aspects are:
1) output drive current capability - output impedance and linearity with dynamics
2) I/V conversion linearity
3) gain stage(s)
3) volume control technology, if included
All of these 4 can be compromised, resulting in compression, low S/N ratio and anemic dynamics. This usually occurs with Op-amps, slow-reacting power subsystems and poor volume control technologies.
The best course is to avoid op-amp outputs IME. Also, try to eliminate the preamp altogether or replace it with a transformer passive linestage.
In order to achieve the best system S/N ratio, it is optimum to make the signal as large as possible early in the chain, as in the first stage after the I/V conversion or the I/V stage itself.
Steve N.
Empirical Audio
