at some risk of ruffling feathers here, plus i haven't heard either combination, but dartzeel makes one amp and one preamp and that is all. assuming they have made a few sales by now, you would think the company would comtemplate building some monoblocks. plus they could offer a line-stage-only preamp without the phono stage and the battery- those items could be offered as an option- that would be both simple and elegant (instead of the lewis-carrol mushroom-inspired design they are so in love with now). and finally, the assertion, no matter how sincere and enthusiastic, that dartzeel gear sounds so incredible as to negate all of the research the other guys in the biz have done- really rubs MY feathers the wrong way. for example, i recently acquired a levinson 326S preamp that, imho, is much sweeter and smoother than the excellent EMM-Lab DCC2SE it replaced- for some time i had felt the emotion of the music was missing in action, although my system sounded so clean and pure. but after the switch, this became immediately apparent, and my ears are not the best at discerning minute differences- all this acheived without adding a battery, tubes, or 3 extra chassis. so my advice- for what it's worth- is i'll just bet that the ayre or possibly something else will sound phenomenal, even magical. 'cause all of those other equipment designers go to concerts, too, and they want to capture "the sound" just as badly as everyone else.
