[mcmusicman]

I was taught that it is best to do volume attenuation at the end of the chain, and to leave DACs and Sources open.
My DAC is the NuPrime DAC10 and frankly I like the remote, easy to use.  My Preamp is a Freya+  feeding a Bryston 4B3.
All balanced. I always want more information so the question would be which of the following makes the most sense sonically and for the life of equipment.
Choices:
1. DAC Open, Control with Preamp.
2. Preamp open, Control with DAC.
3. Set Preamp @ 50-75% then control with DAC.

The Bryston & the NuPrime stay on 24/7. The preamp has a delay as tubes warm up so I check Vol settings then.

Side note....I run the Bryston on 23db gain option and the Dac10 on LL (4v bal).

Thanks.

[dburna]

I have owned a DAC10 and now own several other DACs that do on-chip digital attenuation. My best advice is to let those DACs run wide open. I'm sure there are unique digital attenuation solutions that work well at very low volume levels, but I have yet to run into one. In fact, I am using a DAC now to drive some active desktop speakers. Once I reduced the speakers volume/input sensitivity (so I could run the DAC volume close to full-out), the sound became much more open and dynamic at the same volume levels. In general, digital attenuation will adjust the volume to the appropriate level, but it is rarely if ever without performance trade-offs. Assuming you have a good pre, use the volume control there to adjust the volume levels.

Regards, -dGB

[rustydoglim]

These two FAQ should help:
https://nuprimeaudio.com/ufaqs/what-kind-of-volume-control-and-preamp-do-you-use-for-your-dac/
https://nuprimeaudio.com/ufaqs/if-i-am-using-your-dac-with-a-preamp-or-integrated-amp-how-do-i-set-dacs-preamp-volume/