I own this DAC and all I can say is that it would never leave my system. BTW, is that an MC402 in the background?
This DAC -> tubey preamp -> MC402 is a magical combination. You get all the detail and all the tube love... with gobs of headroom, there is no congestion as it gets louder. Timbre and tone are so well communicated... especially in the fento mode. Have you tried it connected this way? (tube pre and fento)
If you want very warm, really laid back sound, I could see this might not be a great fit.
If I had a Cary SLP-05 or something of that ilk, not sure what else I'd want for in a system. As it stands I'm using a highly modified Belles 21a, which fattened up a bit with the mods. It's as close to that sound as I can get without spending 4-5,k more.
Anyway, just sayin'.. sorry if this is against the rules to comment on your gear. Just delete if so.
-Carl