Topping DX3PRO+ vs E30 as a pre-amp

[Bel Canto]

Was wondering if anyone had any knowledge or thoughts on which of these would have a better pre-amp to drive active speakers.

My thinking is that as the DX3PRO+ is also a headphone amp that the pre-amp part might be slightly better than using the volume control on the E30 dac.

any thoughts out there?

 

[gvl]

Preamp is an overloaded term but technically there isn't a preamp in either. All there is just a digital volume control that is built into the DAC chip. Both should perform similarly from the volume control perspective.

 

[staticV3]

Neither the E30 nor the DX3Pro+ has an actual preamp built-in.

They both use the digital volume attenuation feature built into the DAC chip to control volume.

Using Line out, the performance will be identical.