My setup is all black equipment on a white desk. I love the schiit but it just doesn't match.
I understand O2 is 'the' amp most people will ever need but I'm not sold on it b/c of the front facing jack.
The E17 is actually more expensive on Amazon but do you think the saved money on the E07k is worth the lost features?
E17 vs E70K has basically the same features except slight differences in the amplifier and the E17 has optical input while the E70K has an extra 3.5mm head output & longer battery life. they both use the same WM8740 dac chip. both can dock with the E09K. getting the additional e09k can give you a desktop docking station armed with a higher powered amplifier to match with your portable dac.
the ek17k switches to the PCM5102 dac chip found in the previous E10k and loses the optical input. adds a coaxial input and line output for use as a dedicated dac. supports dsd. No longer compatible with the E09K, but Fiio will be releasing a new version that I believe will be called the E09S. will need to wait for this to become available.
I think that is the gist of the changes besides the actual design.
don't know if this suits your tastes, but you can get the garage1217 amplifiers with black aluminium chassis or clear chassis. project polaris is the only solid state in their line-up, but if you are interested in hybrid tube amplifiers at all. http://www.garage1217.com/.
I believe schiit has a few black Bifrosts still in stock if you are interested in adding a black dac to that. o2+odac comes in black & you can get an extender cable to route the wires to the back if you want.
otherwise, some sexy looking well-recommended black combos I can think of right now include:
- emotiva stealth dc-1 (https://emotiva.com/products/electronics/stealth-dc-1)
- nad 3020 (http://nadelectronics.com/products/digital-music/D-3020-Hybrid-Digital-Amplifier)
- NuForce uDAC-3 DAC/Amp Combo (i've seen it in all black before: http://www.head-fi.org/products/nuforce-icon-udac-3-high-resolution-usb-digital-audio-converter-dac-silver)
- matrix M-stage (http://www.amazon.com/Matrix-m-stage-HPA-Headphone-Amplifier/dp/B0056ER22E or the HP2 version is available on massdrop now for 3 more hours here)
- Aune has a bunch of black amp/dac combos (sexiest one is their T1 tube amp/dac: http://www.amazon.com/Aune-T1-Generation-Amplifier-Decoder/dp/B00A2QJMRY)
- CEntrance DACmini PX Integrated Amp/DAC (http://centrance.com/products/dacmini/px/)
- Fostex HP-A4 DAC/Headphone Amp (http://www.amazon.com/Fostex-Digital-Converter-Headphone-Amplifier/dp/B00IK2IKHU)
- Creative Sound Blaster X7 (http://www.soundblaster.com/amplifiers.aspx)
- Woo Audio WA7 fireflies (in black: http://www.wooaudio.com/products/wa7fireflies.html).
- Audio Gd products are all black, offer extremely good sound for their price, but are mostly all mid-range or luxury options (http://www.audio-gd.com/Products-EN.htm)
Or you can go for the small black unobtrusive usb type dac/amps:
- LH Geek Out has a bunch model #450/720/etc
- Audioquest Dragon v1 & v1.2
- Audioengine has the D1 dac/amp
- Resonessence Herus is the most expensive one out of these (in black) at $350
the rest I can think of from meridan, HRT, audioengine D1 are all silver.
price ranges for the options above are all over, but you didn't specify a price range & after the schiit m&m combo and the jds labs/mayflower o2/odac combo, you are basically looking at either usb-hub options or mid-range type stuff anyways and the mid-range amp/dac prices go all the way up to $1k.
hope this giant list is semi-helpful.
note: this giant list is just of black amp/dac combos that I could think of. there are a ton more options out there if color is not a sticking point or looking for separate components.