[greyhamster]

   
Dear wakibaki,
  Thank you for the suggestion.  Found the DAC 2496 (AK4393) DAC KIT with CS8416+AK4393+5532 thread on DiyAudio (all 258 pages), quite the following.  Have lots of reading to do.
 
Also found a fun thread Giant-killer Budget ebay Wonder DAC, made me laugh

that's one can be lampized too

 

[atsq17]

If $120 is considered inexpensive, how about the pupDac? 
 
http://beezar.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=43&products_id=147
 
I'm about to get one of these myself to try.

 

[RingingEars]

Bringing back this thread.
Has anyone tried the Lampizator knock off from ebay?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/24bit-192KHz-TUBE-DAC-DIY-KIT-Lampucera1-0-Lampizator-CS8416-CS4397-/251727912750?pt=US_Home_Audio_Amplifiers_Preamps&hash=item3a9c271f2e