Patswalker
100+ Head-Fier
I am currently using a pair of Schiit Vidars. The ones that were updated like a year ago. I think technically its the Vidar 2 but on their site it's listed as the VIdar so I'll call it that. The Vidars are set up as monoblocks from the R27RE. The Vidars are going out to GR Research XLS Encore. For tubes I have a Elekit TU8200R with some mods.
Before I had the R28NOS as both the DAC and preamp I had it connected to a Schiit Kara. The Kara is amazing for it's price. It could be a great starting point to see if a preamp is useful or not for you.
When I was finalizing my speaker room I did a test where I connected my Schiit Yggi OG to the Schiit Kara connected to the 2x Vidars listeneing for a week going from gaming to TV to music. I then switched to my HE9LE. I couldn't hear much of a difference at all. It was very obvious that the Kara + Yggi OG + 2x Vidar was designed to work in harmony. It's amazing. I wanted an amazing headphone set up though so I tired the HE9LE and it sounded the exact same but with a badass headphone section now. Amazing. Open. Dretailed. Truly amazing. But the damn size of the HE9LE is so big I'd need to get a new rack. I had the R28NOS in my office as my desktop R2R set up. Not sure how many of these posts you've followed but in case you're hopping on now, I like having more than one set up in any one place. So on my desk I have the R28NOS next to the Geshelli Labs super upgraded with top tier Sparkos opamps stack. They work wonders next to each other. So out of curiosity to see what great actual proper R2R would sound like with the Kara on my speakers in the music room, I put the HE9LE and Schiit Yggi OG back in my headphone room, which is actually where I really wanted it, and connected the R28NOS to the Kara just as a DAC. It was awesome. Smooth wonderful open neutrality. Totally dissappeared and soinded great. It really showed me how much the Yggi OG was flavoring the sound, it showed me what the Schiit house sound is. Don't get me wrong, I love the Schiit house sound, but in my speaker room I do so many differnet things in there like gaming, TV, and music that the wide open neutrality of the dac section of the R28NOS is ideal. It just gets out of the way and makes everything I put through it digitally sound amazing. But I missed it in my office! So then I though, what would happen if I simplified it and used the R28NOS as the actual preamp. I took the Kara out of the chain and connected the Vidar amps to the XLR out of the R28NOS and it sounded wonderful. It sounded VERY close to the exact same as just the dac of the R28NOS goinf through the Kara so I sold the Kara to help go up to the R27 line so I could have the R28NOS back in my office. I knew I wanted either the R27RE or R27HE. I like the idea of the all in one. The physical size of the R27RE is ideal and my power is already super duper clean so when I was saving and looking and saving I saw a used R27RE and jumped on it. It's incredible. I would happily pay full price for one and it would be worth it. I love it so much. To me it is very much an obvious step up from the R28NOS.
So now as is I do love the set up with the R27RE as both the dac and preamp, I did miss parts of the dedicated preamp however. I got an amp switcher made so when I had the Kara preamp I could seamlessly go back and forth playing my vinyl or digigital music on my tube amp or solid state amps and always have a sub connected. I had it set up where all I would need to do it turn on the vinyl chain and tube and and I could conrol the volume of all of it with one remote and just swithcing between sources. No getting up plugging one thing in and another thing out. WIth a dedicated preamp all my chains are connected and it is super seamless moving between them. There is only one analog input to the R28NOS and the R27lines so my single ended phono preamp could not connect. I actually this morning paid for a custom tube preamp to be built for me because for my set up there is a vinyl chain, music chain, and gaming chain, it is ideal to have it all integrated with a separate preamp that has a dedicated sub out. That's the one issue I have with the R28 and R27 lines. Even though it can preamp out to speaker amps, to me a proper preamp is a bridge between multiple sources, not just a volume control. The dedicated Audio GD headphone amps are that, the Kara is that, the R28 and R27 line is not that. Besides that, they're incredible. I get dealighted every time I use them both.
Before I answered your question of if you would lose anything form going to a dedicated preamp I wanted to share all those expeirnces.
So to finally ling-windedly answer your question there I would ask what your music chain looks like. There are many great preamps that are totally transparent and just play the sound like the Kara. A dedicated preamp can also add some yummy tube flavor or other flavor to the mix if you want. I like tube + R2R a lot persoanlly. Preamps can get rad like that if you want them to. What you could gain from a preamp is the ability to run multiple music chains to the same amplifier + sub and all you need to do is chose between the preamp inpits which is huge for me. Or if you want to run to a single ended tube amp as well as a sub, you'd need a preamp for that. The R28 and R27 models only have one RCA output for preamp. Those two reasons are why I decided to get a new preamp. But if you're only using digital and if the R28 or R27 model you're using is all you are using as a dac, you're more than golden. Sonically I found it VERY difficuly to tell a difference between the Shitt Kara and R28NOS. All you would gain is new options. If though, you do plan on adding to the chain and want to keep the R28 or R27 model you have you most likely will want a separate preamp at some point. To me, its necessary, but like I said before I need options. In my office at my desk I alsways have at least 2 different music chains to chose from. Same in my headphone listneing area, same in the AV room.
Hope all that helped.
