Last year we had a severe thunderstorm that fried some of my audio equipment. This last summer I took the plunge and bought several new pieces of equipment (including stuff for sound diffusion, noise filters, vinyl playback, cd playback and plain old fm radio), and I'm really happy with the results so far. (I had settled for listening through my computer until this last summer.)
One piece of equipment that exceeded any expectations I might have had was the Cambridge Audio DacMagic 200M ($500). IT IS NOT A TUBE DAC, but if you're open to exploring a less expensive option, it's worth your time.
I can't say enough positive things about this DAC. It's astounding to hear it in action - like night and day compared to the old system I had. I use it with a much better CD transport and coax cables now, and absolutely everything has improved (the DAC itself has separate chips for left and right channels, and I think that's made a major difference for some reason). I'm also ripping my CDs to flacs to create a "poor man's music server", using a Sony blu-ray player with a USB input and a coax output. Same incredible results in high fidelity, but now it comes from flac files on a USB SSD running through the blu-ray player into the DacMagic 200M. I'm much happier these days.
https://www.cambridgeaudio.com/usa/en/products/hi-fi/dacmagic/dacmagic-200m
One piece of equipment that exceeded any expectations I might have had was the Cambridge Audio DacMagic 200M ($500). IT IS NOT A TUBE DAC, but if you're open to exploring a less expensive option, it's worth your time.
I can't say enough positive things about this DAC. It's astounding to hear it in action - like night and day compared to the old system I had. I use it with a much better CD transport and coax cables now, and absolutely everything has improved (the DAC itself has separate chips for left and right channels, and I think that's made a major difference for some reason). I'm also ripping my CDs to flacs to create a "poor man's music server", using a Sony blu-ray player with a USB input and a coax output. Same incredible results in high fidelity, but now it comes from flac files on a USB SSD running through the blu-ray player into the DacMagic 200M. I'm much happier these days.
https://www.cambridgeaudio.com/usa/en/products/hi-fi/dacmagic/dacmagic-200m