Streaming pre-amp, usb digital out, analog in. Does it exist?

[tmtomh]

The difficulty, as I see it, is that you're looking for a preamp that has to be both before a DAC in the signal chain (because you want the preamp to have a digital-streaming interface to send digital data to the DAC), AND also after the DAC in the signal chain (because you want the hardware volume control).

 

My suggestion would be to instead seek a DAC with streaming capabilities (or a DAC plus a dedicated streaming appliance like a Sonore Rendu type thing), and then an analogue preamp. That would give you the analogue volume control (which BTW is going to be no better, and possibly worse, than a well-implemented digital one), plus the digital processing and streaming capability you seek.

 

Your all-in-one solution does not (as far as I know) exist, because of the unusual "loop-back" functionality you want: You want the preamp to first do the streaming, then feed the DAC, and then have the DAC feed back in to the preamp. You're basically asking a preamp manufacturer to build a digital and analogue preamp that also allows you bypass its internal DAC. I don't think anyone's going to make such a thing,