DAC for entry level system

If you would like to have a very musical dac that is inexpensive and fun to use, I would recomend the Jolida tube dac. It is about 500.00 new and comes with 2 12ax7 tubes. It is well constructed and uses premium parts ( such as Clarity caps). Tube rolling is easy and it has USB, coax, and optical inputs. It is so very musical. I use mine off of my Apple TV (mostly the radio channels) and my XM/Sirious tuner ( before I got rid of it).
It is a very good quality unit.... Very open in sound, good bass and huge soundstage.

My 0.0263 cents
Tubeears
FYI: I am using the new Mullard re-issue at the moment with fantastic results. The Tung- Sols are great as well.

Just a quick word about tubes....
Some of the newer re-makes and some of the easy to find brands in general are getting to be very good and not expensive at all. The new remake Mullards are wonderful tubes and not that far off from the original. JJ has made improvements and the newer Tung-sol's are great to listen to. I think that I paid about 150.00 for a match quad of the new Genelex Gold Lions and they are just incredible... now thats tubes for my amp and not my dac. The smaller tubes for a dac that you may purchase will run you about 20.00 per tube. There are good places to purchase them as well. The Tube Store has always treated me fair and just finding a good outlet that tests, and gives advise is half the fun. Beware ! You can go crazy!!! Personally I don't let myself get suckered into the mega-dollar tubes. I will agree that some may sound better... But it is a diminishing return. As stated, the newer runs of tubes from most manufacturers are just great.

Just my 0.0263 cents
Come on, do some tubes... You will be happy that you did.

Cheers,
Tubeears