R2R next? Don't like ESS

"@mattw73 Straight wire with gain approach doesn’t interest me as much these days."
Agree. A good DAC and good preamp can sure help bring out the sound. Not sure why some folks believe no preamp or a minimalist dac is better sounding. 

At the risk of raining on your solidarity, there are virtues to a non-tube preamp. I have both a SS preamp that adds virtually nothing and also a nice tubey 6SN7 preamp.  I've also spent a fair amount of time listening to a very neutral autoformer based preamp.

What does a neutral preamp give me? 

• For one thing, additional detail. More complex music has better separation between instruments and cleaner highs. It may lack some "warmth" in the mids but if there is a tube or Class A amp coming after it, I get the warmth there.
• Another is, well, neutrality. What is my amp contributing? Or a tube change? Or a cable? There is nothing contributed by the preamp so that variable is removed.
• It stays on all the time, ready to go. Not a big deal but nice. No tubes to worry about or replace.

Then I put the tube preamp back in and a bunch of other enjoyments occur.

It's trade offs, really. But one can have a neutral preamp and not be lacking in many of the things people like about tubes.

@mattw73

I’m just more open to trying something that may be deliberately not as transparent or without the lowest THD.

I agree. I have an R2R DAC and a tube amp. I had a tube DAC and it just muddied things up too much. I had another DAC that was not R2R and it was just too bright, most of the time. So, on to a more expensive R2R DAC.

And of course I totally agree with you and with @decooney when he says it’s up to your preference. But that's like saying, "I'm for goodness." Who can disagree with this? Can’t fathom someone saying they want someone to tell them what their experience is. Pretty much impossible. So the real lesson is to not be railroaded about a particular approach to an engineering problem. Trust your ears. Ok, that's an easy lesson but maybe easy to forget in the fog of audio shopping.

Just to clarify, my point is perhaps best stated with an analogy:

A cast-iron skillet is better for pancakes.
A saucepan is better for poaching chicken.

No one is ever asked to choose one tool for different jobs!

So, when it comes to different kinds of music, different preamps might be better. That’s what I was attempting to illustrate. In other words, the false choice is the "either/or" rather than the "both/and."

And notice: this has nothing to do with you choosing what you prefer because of course that’s what we’re all doing! It’s about you (or me) recognizing that we might get more of what we prefer by having more than one preamp (or cooking pan).