Maybe I may dissuade someone for doing anything with my comment. I was in the same boat not too long ago. I wish I had listened to some advice to look at Schitt Audio when stating out as I stated above.
Last night, I did a complex audio setup, and I needed a preamp. I remembered that I had a Schitt JR headphone amp in a box somewhere. Schitt stopped making this unit was getting rid of stock for about $250 last year.
I took this amp out of the box and hooked it up to a ROON endpoint that was using a Convolution filter made for a specific headphone (a complicated setup). I ended up using the preamp section of this unit and not the amp end. I hooked it up to the Schitt Aegir v1 amp ($450 used). This thing sounded so good that I put up my $7000 tube headphone amp that serves the same purpose up for sale yesterday.
I am not starting out my audio builds but finishing my builds. I am selling a lot of expensive ger to ’downsize’ with the Schitt gear I am recommending for people who are just starting out.