Tube DACs

I have a Black Ice tube DAC (new purchase, very happy) playing through a Raven integrated tube amp. Sounds really good, starting to rival my analogue front end.

It has a gain control, which doubles as a volume control for headphones. It is not designed to be connected directly to a power amp as far as I know.

I went with a Tube DAC with the intention of tube rolling, which I did immediately. Huge change after adding some NOS Mullard’s. Done for now.

No reason not to use a Tube DAC with a SS amp. Or the converse...my phono stage is SS. IMO the Cart/TT does the sound shaping and I wanted a clean, quiet transfer from the PS.

"Tube DACs were not designed to eliminate the preamp any more than a tube phono pre is."

The above succinctly states what all responses are telling me, and thanks for it. There are those who run streamer/dac/pre combo units straight to amp. But none of these products are tubed so far as I'm aware . . . ?

Why ? Tube dacs can sound very good but there are far more SS dacs that are better in several areas  for under$7 k World class T&A 200 dac 

that is next on my list it is exceptional and I have heard many dacs at 2x the cost 

not as good.

@audioman58 The T+A DAC 200 is actually top of my list. With a tube preamp always. Whether a tube DAC would better sit my ears is TBD.

Well I am waiting on my first Audio tube component ( I have 2 tube amps for bass guitar, and 2 hybrids), an Ayon Kronos Signature DAC. It will be XLR'd into my ML 523 pre, and taking signal from an AES connection from the HiFi Rose RS150B. Pretty excited.  Even though the tube bass amps have a special sound, I use my hybrid tube pre/mosfet power amp the most.  So I am hoping for the same excellence with the new DAC.