Life without preamp

[hurin]

I finally took the jump, and retired my RSP 1069. In it's place I got the Cambridge Audio's Azur 752BD. It has two HDMI inputs and replaces my existing BD player, my CD player and the preamp.

Pros:
Sound quality seems to have improved a little, Wolfson DACs rule!
Simpler setup, less cable clutter
No more handshake issues
DLNA

Cons:
Digital volume control
Only two HDMI inputs
Firmware is not free of bugs, and updates are rare.

[impala454]

I did something similar a while back in the quest for a simpler setup. Took a Denon Receiver out of the loop between an Oppo BDP & Emotiva XPA5. It was nice and sound quality did seem to improve a bit, but the digital volume control was very lacking on the Oppo. It was too large of a jump in volume for each tick for my taste.