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Bret Ludwig wrote:
wrote:
"Bret Ludwig" wrote in message
oups.com...
He wants a receiver not a power amplifier. Quit trying to sell him
what he has not asked for.

I'm not trying to sellhim anything, I'm just explaining why I made the
recomendation, and why it is a reasonable one.

You are right. He did, and I was wrong. Dunno why I said that.

Be that as it may: another factor is there is very little difference
between a "stereo power amplifier" and a "line stage integrated
amplifier". The latter has a volume control, several sets of input
jacks and a selector. They both work at the same input level more or
less. And on pro amps many have attenuators, if not the ideal kind,
already!

If you only listen to digital sources get a DAC that has a volume
control, such as the better-than-pretty-good Benchmark. It will drive
most power amps directly. I recently rigged up a temporary system with
a cheap CD player, a Benchmark DAC, a pair of un-upgraded, beat up but
maintained Altec 1590B solid state amplifiers and some large JBL three
way speakers-they may have been sold for home or studio monitor use-and
the result was actually a listenable system of better quality than one
would rightly expect: not magnificent, but one could do worse at many
high end saloons. External DACs are incapable of playing SACD or many
DVD-A sources though, and the Benchmark runs in four figures.

Those who don't believe in highbit digital, then, have the most to
gain from a good DAC.

I primarily use FLAC files (served from a 17W headless linux computer
running Slim Server) as a source sent to a Slim Devices Squeeze Box 2.
The SB2 has a Burr-Brown DAC that I am happy with right now.

EB