Go for the BHK Pre. It’s a great piece of kit and should greatly enhance your sound when coming from the DSD to Monos.
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I would try it. I’m doing x1 + bhk pre + bhk 300
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pulled the trigger this morning.
thanks for all the advice
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Congrats! It’s a great preamp. Once you fit with tubes to your taste, you can set and forget it.
Candidly, I read consensus emerging from this thread that adding a BHK pre-amp in the analog path between a DAC and a power amp results in substantial improvement in SQ and soundstage, and I and cannot understand why. Can someone chime in and help educate me with the rationale behind it?
Thank you.
Sir Paul himself. Well, not THAT Sir Paul, but everyone’s favorite audiophile Paul discussed this very question/topic…
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Thank you for linking this. I watched with great attention it and it sounds like Paul does not understand why either (which makes me feel a little less ignorant…). His best guess however, if I understood his point, is that the tube in the path may be a factor…?
So still a mystery to me (I have never had any audio gear with tubes)…
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Pretty much, community members who report their experience have used their ears to reach a conclusion! For those living outside the US there are no free trials, so they have to listen at a dealer’s, at friend’s, or at their own risk 
In the future, I would love to have DAC with a high quality built-in volume control. I know there’s some out there, like the Playback Designs, but 25k is a little outside my budget at this time. I’ve owned numerous CD players with decent volume controls, like Accuphase, and Ayon, but my current DAC and preamp, DSD and BHK, easily outperform those CD players from the past.
I don’t think it’s just the tube making the difference, I have a tube dac and a tube preamp, when I hook the dac up direct it doesn’t sound as good. I believe a preamp has the gain to help with the dynamics more than a dac directly into an amp, that’s just my guess.
Many people opine that “gain matching” or the adjustable and complimentary/synergistic relationships of the potential for gain between sources and amps that preamps allow for is what produces the “magic”.
FWIW.
Thank you both for your thoughts. Appreciated.
How much was the BHK Pre on sale for? I didnt grab one and regret it. I cant remember the sale price and I want to know for reference and so I can kick myself harder for skipping it.
Think $4600 and some change…roughly 30%
Think its what you get as a max trade in if you have something u can get rid of
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The BHK Pre made a difference for me when I added it into the mix, especially in regards to sound stage. I’m running the Directstream DAC, powered by a First Watt F8, powering Klipsch Cornwall IVs.
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