Differences in sound: DAC vs. DAC + Pre-amplifier

[Rexp]

The pre amp used to be THE most important component in a high-end system with solid state ones hard to find. Good ones I've had were made by ATC, Gryphon, Parasound and Simaudio. No idea whats on offer now but they wont be cheap. 

[Rexp]

6 hours ago, Miska said:

Digital volume is certainly one option too. I just have 8 DACs connected to my preamp... 😅

 

My ADI-2 Pro AE is on my office headphone system, connected to Mac Mini M1 and T+A HA200 over balanced. Then the USB input of HA200 is connected to my Windows 10 for Workstations machine, and Denafrips Ares II to my Linux machine and to HA200 over unbalanced. So three different DACs, one headphone amp and two headphones.

 

The regular ADI-2 Pro is on the listeningroom loudspeaker system and sometimes serving as analog/digital input and sometimes as output. Connected over unbalanced to the preamp tape in/out.

Then in addition I have three other systems. Two loudspeaker and one headphone systems. But those were the two involving ADI-2.

In a high end analogue system, the pre amp is the most important component IME, why would that not be the case with digital sources?