cel4145
Headphoneus Supremus
Sound wise it's honestly nothing special, not anywhere close to best I've heard... but I do like it's warmer tone and how it has been totally hassle free for me (no weird noises at the HP out when plugging in/out, black background without hiss even when using the volume control, line/preout option, AUX in, USB working flawless, etc), it's compact size for being a combo unit and reasonable gain at both settings (at low gain, you get good volume range even with the more sensitive headphones, while high is still strong enough for more demanding cans). For something in its price range (as low as you can go for something of this variety, basically), I'm actually pretty impressed at how little they get seriously wrong. I've been rather enjoying it as part of my bedside rig lately with all my headphones/IEM's.
Glad to hear your update on this, as there have been very few testimonials for it. I have been wondering how it and the Fire Phoenix would compare since they are pretty comparably priced: http://penonaudio.com/FIRE-PHOENIX-DAC-02. Got it for my teenage son a few years ago, and still working well. More discussion of the Fire Phoenix here (in case someone ends up looking for alternative $100 dac/amps). We need a shootout between the two