Thanks RJ. I find the MC462 is doing a great job. I use the McIntosh D100 as my pre-amp as I have ripped all my CD's so using Roon to catalogue my musicians then stream. Saving up to buy the new Dac McIntosh just brought out. I don't think I ever will add a separate Pre to the system.
Yes, the MC462 is a phenomenal beast. When my good mate who had the Maggie 30.7's ran it with the previous MC452 and a MC301, it was quite obvious in level of drive and control, the moment he installed the MC462. It has greater current capacity and much higher voltages, so ideal for driving stats. One of those Mac amps I really liked! Well, I guess we can't have it all... might as well enjoy the music to the fullest!
As far as a preamp is concerned, in my experience over the years... I came across the best possible sound is to keep things simple, and that is pretty much no preamp at all! Then again, the sole purpose of a preamp is to enable switching between different sources. Hence, if you're using just one source then why switch? I also learned that there are far too many preamps that totally color the sound. By the time your source signal has been disseminated and passes onto the preamp, it gets tonally colored by the time it leaves the preamp onto the poweramp... then when it reaches the speakers, I'm not even sure if that's what the original source was supposed to sound like! So, for nearly two decades I was on a quest to find the most neutral preamp possible without having to break the bank. The most satisfying preamps were the most neutral and being a full Line Stage design. It also preserves the incoming Phase from the source signal. So, I would think that since the Phase of this signal has been preserved, when it reaches the main Outputs of the preamp, it is in fact "Inverted phase." All source signals are phase inverted once at all inputs on the Line Stage, therefore preserving this inverted phase at the Outputs must involve a purer signal, which is uncolored and true to the original source. Makes all good sense on paper... so how does it sound? Well pretty darn good!
When I compared these very Neutral sounding Line Stages to other preamps, I noticed a very colored sound with the others. Hence, when I checked with the techies of that brand, they mentioned that all source signals are phase inverted once at the Inputs and then Inverted again at the main Outputs. So, this is phase inversions twice! Which is why those source signals sound a bit colored. Some of them do sound quite good in fact, and others not so... I guess it's a personal preference. At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter whether the preamp preserves phase or inverts phase, as long as the Line Stage is doing it's job of true pre-amplification with the least amount of color and tonal altering... being neutral as possible is just better for overall musicality.
Just my 50cts worth.
In your case, it certainly sounds like you've found the best possible non-preamp solution, and the DAC seems to be doing a marvelous job! I would just keep it that way, as long as you're enjoying those fine tunes!
Cheers, RJ
