The realization that perhaps I don’t need tubes in the chain!!!

This is so far my favorite setup, the sim pre with the dsc2 dac. Totally blows me away with this unique sound. At dsd512, overall sound is very coherent, mids are just right, sweet yet detailed, highs are airy, with a holographic soundstage. I know we often talk about preferring bass to be tight and snappy, the dsc2 on the other hand has soften and slow down the sub bass quite a bit, which is really quite unique with an overall very refined/relaxed sound presentation… definitely the most analog sounding setup I have heard…

The Simaudio pre is faithfully amplifying the vinyl sound of the dsc2 dac, great combo!!!