I gotta vote preamp. I have the DSD Sr with the preamp and the BHK 250, and man, is it good. I also have the DSD Jr through a Luxman integrated in a bedroom system - also fantastic, but a completely different experience. For fun, I swapped the BHK pre and power out for the Luxman in my main system (so, DSD Sr running through Luxman). Now, the Luxman is no slouch, but boy was it a step down in listening experience. There’s magic in that Pre.
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Nice gear. I had been eyeing the Luxman 509x for a while myself. Have you experimented with attaching the BHK pre to your Luxman and using the Luxman as the power amp (not sure if it is possible with this unit)?
It sounds like there is definitely a benefit of adding a preamp if one was previously going Directstream direct to the power amp. Now, replace the power amp with an integrated and I wonder if that difference will still be there.
Good point. I have tried the BHK pre into the Luxman’s direct input, though it is possible and it is on the list of games to play. When I pulled the Luxman out of the second system, I tried diving a Burson Timekeeper I had directly with the DSD Jr (this combo allowed only for SE connections, while I generally make use of the balanced ins/outs), and man, it sucked. Doesn’t really add any meaningful information to the decision at hand, but another audio maniac’s anecdote FWIW. What I need to do is swap the DSD and DSD Jr around and see if I can hear the difference. One of these days…