johnlewisgrant

Listening now to this venerable controller. i think I might prefer a passive controller. The M Patch, perhaps? The Drawmer is dead quiet, but sounds to me like just a tiny amount of fidelity has been lost from the source.

Well, to make a long story short, I picked up a Drawmer mc2.1, which seems pretty quiet and colorless. But no remote or usb. Might be overkill. Not sure.

Bluetooth…yup… thanks for the suggestions… this is exactly what I'm looking for. The emo DAC (499) could be added to the list, I guess. I'm on a learning curve here. It's starting to occur to me that the distinction between "preamp" and "DAC" is becoming less and less distinct.

Purchased some very high end active monitors (Nuemann HK310s), which in a perfect world I would just connect to one of my cheap (Scarlett or Maudio) interfaces, then to a computer source, and have done with it. BUT…some BUTS… 1) I've got too many CDs to rip then all to the computer (hence will have to keep a cd player); 2) my family want to be able to use an fm tuner, iPads, etc with it; 3) they also want an easy-to-use remote for switching sources and for controlling volume SO… I'm wondering whether I have to purchase something like a used emotive pre-amp, which has all of the above, but which is an unecessary stage in the chain that ends with the speakers, or whether there is a DAC out there that has a volume control and various inputs for different sources (CD player--which of course already has a DAC!!-- usb, iPods, fm tuner, etc., etc.)??? Thanks, and I hope I got this question right.