I'd take a look at the Grant Fidelity Tube Dac 11, developed by a Canadian but manufactured by Yulong in China, the same as the recent massdrop. The GF offers switched tube or solid state output, users choice, and while the provided tube is very good, there's a developer sponsored thread about even better (and worse) ones. It's a very good sounding dac that I use for my 2.0 TV set up. From the site:<br /><br />"It is a 5-in-1 unit: can be used as 1) external USB DAC for laptop through any output, 2) headphone amp, 3) tube processor for analog signal, 4) digital decoder for optical and coaxial signal, 5) pre-amplifier with volume control." http://shop.grantfidelity.com/Grant-Fidelity-TubeDAC-11-D-A-Converter.html<br /><br />I see it's currently sold out, with a new production batch due in 5-7 weeks. So something to consider as fall develops.
We're still working to contact Maverick but in the meantime, we've been able to work with mayflower to deliver a custom O2+ODAC combo. <br /><br />Prepare your wallets!
I heard this regarding the Maverick Tube amp:
The headphone output actually doesn't process through the tube?
Is this true? If true, then doesn't kind of defeat the purpose for headphone usage if you want to take advantage of the tube sound?