[BikeFi10]

Ive always used a pre amp, but due to losing my listening room for an extended time, my rig is in storage. Im thinking about a scaled down setup up with BS Node 2i to Geshelli dac directly into Kismet amp to Magnepan 1.7i s or old Audio Monitor speakers.
The DAC has 3 volume settings and BS BluOS app on my ipad has volume adjust as well..
Is it safe/ok to feed dac straight into Kismet amp?
The next issue will be positioning. This will be in living room where wife has furniture angled in a rectangluar room. I guess thats a topic for the Planar Circle.

[wgraft5]

I am using a cheap DAC with a volume control pluged directly into my Stratos Mono Extreams with no problems. This is temporary and not excatly the same as you, but as long as you have a volume knob you should be fine.

Wayne in Oregon

[GeneS]

I’m thinking it would be ok. I used a Mytek Brooklyn DAC for a while as a preamp and it worked fine. While I was waiting for my Candela to be built, I picked up a Schiit SYS to use. That worked great as a temporary solution. So much so, that I kept the SYS for a “just in case” scenario.

[GeneS]

Sorry…follow up…
I just looked up the Geshelli line of products, and I’m assuming you have the JNOG DAC. I was curious about the “3 volume settings”.
Knowing maybe a little more now than my previous post  , I think I’d find the volume level that worked best on the Geshelli, leave that fixed, and use the Bluesound as more of an adjustable volume control from there. I didn’t see the difference in volume settings indicated in the manual, so I would start with “low” and go from there. I hope it is a volume setting in the Geshelli and not a gain setting, but it clearly says volume.

[BikeFi10]

Good to know that worked out for you guys. I was concerned there may be some voltage mismatch or improper loading for Kismet.
Im wondering if this will even be a boost to overall sound quality by taking out a lot of cicuitry.

Yes, Gene your right about the J2 dac's setting. I dont know db levels, but its a big jump from low to high.
Its been handy for my old cd player with no remote. I had to set my pre amp volume below 8:00 for normal listening volume. The dac's low setting lets me set volume to a normal 10:00 or so on pre amp.

Either way it would be temporary. When my listening room occupants  leave Ill put pre amp back in service to use TT, cd player, sub. Pre amps eq functions very handy to have too with recording eqs all over the spectrum.