Tube DACs

As pointed out already, there’s not much random in your counselling others, and experimenting, to find a combination that allows you to hear deep into your music. I echo the finding of Ayon eqpt. noted in post above.

If you have a tube transport / DAC AND power amp capability / sound character that you value highly, you might try eliminating the relative complication and noise of a pre-amp in favour of a transformer volume control (TVC) or similar device: if you like your upstream components, your music could be revealed much more transparently and richly, depending, of course, upon a positive mating of your components. Enjoy your search.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with running a tube dac through a tube pre, unless the point is there’s no need to do that, because you you already get tube sound through the pre.  I agree that there’s synergy in coupling tube components together. In my case, in my vintage system I run a jolida tube dac thru a McIntosh MX110z, mated with 2 McIntosh MC30s. 

@smoorenc - yeah, I have an older Line Magnetic, LM502ca - really a wonderful piece and once you get the Chinese tubes out of it and toss in some "better" 12au7 or 5814A (Telefunken, Amperex, RCA clear tops, etc.) it really becomes shockingly good. I run tubes in my Linestage & Power Amp and sometimes it's a bit less dynamic than I'd prefer but for 99% of my listening its a glorious DAC & setup. All modest components compared to many on this site but, synergy between the gear in my main rack is fabulous. 

"you might try eliminating the relative complication and noise of a pre-amp in favour of a transformer volume control (TVC) or similar device:"

In my case that's not an option because I use 3 analog inputs besides the 2 DACs. Well, maybe if I ran the main DAC via single end to amps. TVC is very much in the picture either way, however. Room correction needed whatever the electronics.

I had thought the same myself. Can tubes cancel each other out? Tubes are in the chain to achieve a particular sound signature you like. This is the whole idea behind tube rolling. There are tube dac tube phono pre amps and tube amps snd tube pre Amps that can all be in one chain. Every link in the chain will effect the output sound. This does not necessary make it bad but would need slot of adjustments. My biggest concern is that most tube stages add gain into the signal path and if you are adding gain of 12 + 14 how much distortion can be you end signal or output. I like the flexibility of my Freya pre if I had a tube dac I could take the tube stage out of the pre amp. Currently I have Gustard R26 non tube dac do use tube stage on Frey’s with nos tall boys. I still hope to some day find the holy grail Telefunken nos tubes and not have to pay a $1000 each. Have fun exploring and enjoy the music!