[Godofwar424]

Hi,
 
I currently have a FiiO E7/E9 combo, old and it's starting to play up so I am looking to upgrade.
 
I ordered an AudioEngine D1 from Amazon UK which should come Monday but I just learned that it's RCA outputs are variable and controlled by the damn volume knob which I DO NOT WANT!
 
My setup is as follows:
 
2x Monitor Audio BX-2 Speakers hooked up to a Cambridge Audio AM10 Amplifier.
 
I switch between various headphones with impedance's ranging from 300-600 Ohms.
 
I want to buy a good DAC for this sort of price range (£100-200) and later want to buy a nice Tube Amplifier withing the same price range (£100-200) to help drive the headphones, for the time being I shall just drive the headphones off the Cambridge Audio AM10 Amplifier as it's good enough for short-term and just need to know of a good DAC with Optical and USB Inputs, don't care about whether it goes to 192KHz, 96KHz will be perfectly fine and hell even 48KHz works for me lol. The DAC must have Line-Level outputs which I assume is a given on a standalone DAC
 
I would also like recommendations on some decent Tube Headphone Amps with both RCA In (from the DAC) and RCA Out to get some of that warm tube sound going to the Speakers themselves, assuming the RCA Out's are not amplified as I don't want dual amplification!
 
Look forward to hearing your suggestions, really want to buy this DAC ASAP and the Tube Amp relatively soon as I live for my music and my FiiO is just dying every passing day
 
 
p.s. I want a Tube Amp because I love the warm, smooth sound of tubes compared to the more neutral sound of SS. Although I am sure some SS are also warm and smooth so I am welcome to suggestions of those too
 
Final note. If you guys have any combined devices with both Amp and DAC together for around (£200-300) let me know
 
Thanks in advance!

 

[JRG1990]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/MUSICAL-FIDELITY-ANALOGUE-CONVERTER-Electronics/dp/B005K8CSZ2/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1399824785&sr=8-14&keywords=dac
 
For the amp something like this http://www.amazon.co.uk/Little-Dot-MKII-Headphone-Amplifier/dp/B00A2QMAI2/ref=pd_sim_sbs_ce_5?ie=UTF8&refRID=16F6B2M1HTHK22HYKJJN 

 

[Godofwar424]

  http://www.amazon.co.uk/MUSICAL-FIDELITY-ANALOGUE-CONVERTER-Electronics/dp/B005K8CSZ2/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1399824785&sr=8-14&keywords=dac
 
For the amp something like this http://www.amazon.co.uk/Little-Dot-MKII-Headphone-Amplifier/dp/B00A2QMAI2/ref=pd_sim_sbs_ce_5?ie=UTF8&refRID=16F6B2M1HTHK22HYKJJN 

Hmm, that does look like a good combo!
 
Just one question about the Little Dot MKII Headphone Amp, are the RCA Outs that would go to my speakers fixed-level and also not amped?
Are they affected by the tubes or is it simply an RCA passthrough of some sort?
 
Final question regarding that amplifier as I am going to purchase the VDAC in a minute.
Is it worth going for the newer LittleDot MK3 instead of the MK2?             Not a huge amount more money seeing as I am not buying it just yet.

 

[JRG1990]

I don't know about the little dot tube amps aren't for me, the littledot is popular amp though just type it in the search bar theres a thread on it somewhere ask in there and some1 should be able to help you.

 

[Godofwar424]

  I don't know about the little dot tube amps aren't for me, the littledot is popular amp though just type it in the search bar theres a thread on it somewhere ask in there and some1 should be able to help you.

Will do!
 
Thanks I just received my VDACII courtesy of Amazon's same day delivery, and its already a substantial improvement over the E7/9 combo! I am hearing things I didn't and there's much more space with better instrument and vocal separation! 
 
Can't wait till this thing is truly burnt in, I heard somewhere something like 300 hours, good thing uni finishes next week, god time to burn this baby in.
 
Also the Optical solution means my PC's recent driver issue with USB DAC's is no longer an issue, no more stupid BSOD's after waking from sleep! Cannot be bothered to reinstall Windows just yet lol