Heya fellow Thunderpantsers, just checking in as I'm still deciding on whether to upgrade my amp (currently a CTH, one of the first, which has had some issues occasionally cutting out entirely (until I lower the volume) because of that annoying E12 protection circuit) and my rapidly aging E-mu 0404 USB DAC which I've known for awhile is in dire need of a replacement.
In terms of upgrade options for these two pieces of gear, on the amp side I'd considered another hybrid, perhaps the Lyr. Any TP owners care to comment on their experience driving the TPants with the Lyr? On the DAC side, I'm inclined to go with the Bifrost if I end up going the Lyr route just to keep my DAC & Amp within the Schiit family, but there are so many good, reasonably affordable DAC options out there at the moment that I'm struggling to decide on one. I know Smeggy uses a Pico DAC and seems more than happy with the job its done so I've done some looking at that, but I'd mostly like to hear from fellow TP owners who are happy with the synergy they've found in their setups. On that note, anyone have any reasonably affordable (IE, <$600ish) DAC (or Amp/DAC) recommendations (must have USB to connect to my laptop running foobar) that in your opinion do justice to our TPants? Many thanks in advance!