Ok, I am still intrigued by this DAC/Amp, especially when the looks and price are factored in (I just don't want silver/aluminum). I have been digging for impressions wherever I can find them and I started talking to a guy who had purchased one that I found through ebay. Really great guy and he has shared not only his impressions with me, but also some news very pertinent to anyone on the fence about one of these. As has been mentioned before, this is VERY similar to a couple other existing products, including the Pacific Valve Xiansheng DAC-01 and the Grant Fidelity Tube DAC-09. Well, because of these similarities, very soon (within a week or two), Grant Fidelity will be the only place to buy this DAC/amp, and they normally charge $390 for it. My new audio buddy has said that he thinks it is worth it. Below are his impressions:
"Sonically, it impressed me for the price. It's worth the $400 that Grant charges. At $200 it's a true steal. I figured at $200 it was a throw away if it sucked (I guessed it would suck). D/A has gotten pretty easy these days, and if you couple it with the right op-amp/dac and keep the noise out, many new, inexpensive designs can outperform $2k dacs that are 5 years old. It's not perfect and it can't complete with a new big-buck dac in some areas. But it's not an insult to listen to and it really helped with my Sonos. It's much better than the onbaord dac in the Sonos. I'm not using it in my main system, but it resides in another room with a Sonos (mostly uncompressed files) into the dac then directly into a vfet yamaha B-2 amp and into Cornwalls or DIY Altec VOTT. I wanted a tube dac to smooth the highs a bit and warm the mids. I burned it in for about a week (tuned the sonos on into the dac, but didn't have the B-2 on).
It's quiet enough for the horns (which can be a problem with cheap tube equipment). It's a bit tubey which I wanted, but I will be tube rolling for mroe tube magic. Either Bendix or Western Electric is what I'll buy first. The tube output has plenty of bass response (which can also be a problem with tubes).
In all honesty, I even like the sound of Rhapsody being streamed from the Sonos. I don't critically listen to Rhapsody streams, but I would have thought I'd be tearing my ears off trying to listen to mid-bit-rate streams through Sonos through transistor amp to horn speakers. With the dac, it's pretty good. Certainly good enough for casual/background music.
It'd be interesting to hear it side x side with a Scott Nixon dac. But I don't have one.
Hey, it's $200 (if you hurry). You'll never lose money since once it's gone, the identical Grant is $390 and is worth it at that price IMO."
He hasn't used it as a headphone amp, but the power specs at least seem to be up to snuff. He also wanted to pass along that the volume only controls the headphone amp as configured. The Grant Fidelity version can control the lineout (if using as a preamp) using a pin switch, but this one cannot. For me, that is irrelevant because I need an all in one solution. Just wanted to pass that along as a heads up.
So in short (too late!) If you want one at $200 shipped, buy now. Otherwise, you will have to pay double to try it from a different source. I am still on the fence, as $200 is still a big layout and Nuforce (who for purely irrational reasons I really like), is coming out with a new DAC/amp in November (albeit for $400) that I am intrigued by.
