You can, in fact, order this DAC-AMP with a power switch/on-off button for an extra $10.
Personally though, I was a bit disappointed with this little amp; due to their limited functionality, these devices (including the Aune as well as other small USB DAC-AMP devices) should really be considered merely external sound cards for your home computer that also happen to have a jack for your headphones and a volume knob.
Though I have not had my Aune for very long, and there may still be a great deal I need to learn about this device, I am disappointed by the inability to use it as a pseudo mini-receiver. This beautiful little device would be an excellent piece if it were possible to plug in both a pair of headphones and a set of bookshelf speakers, but the stereo line-out on the back of the unit is not powered by the amp, and to make this a practical setup you would need another small amp to power the rear line-out.
Additionally, consider the impracticality of the inputs on the Aune. Now, it is possible that I have simply over-looked something in haste, but I don’t see that it is possible to run something from the RCA (rear line-in) to the headphones, so the listener has only two options: USB or S/PDIF (coaxial). Let’s assume that the USB line is connected to the user’s home computer: this is fine, but what other devices can a person hook up to this unit? Few devices really use coaxial audio these days (meaning that most DVD players, video game systems, and even TVs have abandoned coaxial digital audio in favor of TOSLINK). A digital optical input would have really been a better choice for this device (for connectivity reasons only), or at least a decent mechanism for importing analog audio.
Personally, I only use this device as an external sound card for my home computer; it works fine for playing my lossless audio files over my headphones, and since that is what I wanted it for, I am satisfied with the unit. However, if someone first looks at this device and thinks, as I initially did (perhaps foolishly so), that a person could hook this up to a computer, another device (such as a Playstation or something), and switch back-and-forth between inputs, or switch back-and-forth between speakers and headphones, he is likely to be disappointed. I would love to see a unit exactly like the Aune that simply has better connectivity options; there are, of course, a wealth of devices which can perform all the tasks to which I alluded, but I like the look and feel of the Aune so much, that I find myself disappointed by what it could have been.
