Does a Tube Dac make sense?

@jjss49

There certainly s a wide range of confidence with which opinions are tendered! ;)

@stibin,
I’ve heard a number of tube DACs and they can range from just okay to superb, same exact experience with transistor DACs. The sound quality will be determined by the talent of the builder, design, part quality, attention to detail and implementation.

Musical Paradise has earned a good word of mouth reputation. I would seek clarification in regard to the return policy. If you find it satisfactory I’d get it and judge it based on its sound quality in your system. This the only way to really sort it out. The general dismissal of a DAC with with tube output stage seems illogical and without merit. Execution of the product is the key.
Charles

There is no more reason to discount a DAC having a tube output stage than a tube pre or a tube amp. In some regards less so. 

DACs often have fewer tubes than preamps, tubes are of lower output and less costly than preamps or amps. They are often used at far less than rated output so last longer. A great way to introduce tubes into a system. Especially at the budget under discussion here.

The question was, do tube dacs make sense, not can I buy a dac with a tube to distort the sound to my liking. The whole engineering concept of a DAC is to convert the digital to analog as precise without distortion as possible. From that perspective adding tubes and other filters to mess with the output makes no sense. If you want colorations, to me it makes more sense to buy a transparent dac for $200 and do the signal degradation with preamps or amps or EQ. It’s cheaper and in the OPs case it makes even less sense he's already using a tube preamp.

This is why when discussing an audio product the final arbiter is "how does it sound" and do I like it. Tube colorations? Sure, either that or one may prefer transistor coloration. Both active devices have their inherent distortion profile and character. Either one used thoughtfully in a well designed analogue output stage of a DAC can be successful. The listener decides which device distortion characteristics they are more pleased with.
Charles