Well, I didn't expect a post on DA-152 to be up here so soon, I thought it'd need a bit of time to brew before people will notice it.
Anyways, regarding the price of the unit, yes it is not a cheap unit, and we did not build it cheaply either. From the very first when I was discussing with KECES' owner about this, we had planned for something that can go head to head against other best in class products from competitors. To do that, we not only have to use quality parts, we also have to experiment with several different configurations and constant tweaks. In the end, we ended up with something that costs us more than twice of what DA-151 had costs us. However, we felt it is a good trade off to not cut the corners on our DA-152, and it performs very well in many of our real-world listening tests. I have personally tested it on ER-4P, HD650 and AKG 240DF, and it excels while clearly reflecting the differences between each headphone/IEM. (No, using ER-4P with DA-152 does not require ear-drum replacement... just turn the volume down, and you'd be surprised to hear how balanced it is even when turned down to very low volume.)
Another advantage that I've found during the pre-order phase is that one customer wanted something that he can use to monitor his recording on the fly, and he wants something small and neat with the ability to drive his active speaker or his headphone. Which is basically what DA-152 is designed to do, and I'd love to have the chance of a shootout against other stand-alone headphone amps+DAC that costs similar or somewhat more than DA-152, and see how DA-152 fairs in comparison.
As for one Head-Fier who is wondering how the bass is on DA-152, basically it is very controlled, with natural decay and not a hint of boomyness (whatever that's called). If you music/recording calls for a large KA-Boom, then that's what exactly you will hear with good speed, control and power. It will not over-exaggerate to something that is not what it is, nor will it skimp on what it should deliver.
As for DA-132, it is not in the plans yet. We are currently thinking about a stand alone headphone amp that is going to be similar in configuration to DA-152's headphone section. However, since there's no DAC circuit taking up precious room, the headphone amp will be overbuilt to house even more goodies. Some features were left out on DA-152 because it takes too much room, these will be the features that we will be implementing into the stand alone headphone amp
When's the amp going to be released? I honestly don't know, but we are working on it.
