I've been using my DCC2 SE for the past month while my Jadis JP 200 is in for repairs and refurbishing. It is a very, very good line stage, transparent and detailed, with excellent dynamics and soundstaging. It is not, however, a tubed preamp, and it definitely lacks the bloom and last bit of dimensionality you get from a tubed preamp (this was made absolutely clear to me when I borrowed a Shindo preamp for a week), particularly your Hovland, which I recall seemed to lean to the romantic side of neutral when I heard it. As a DAC, the DCC2 is tough to beat--I'd rank it in the top tier of DACs available today, and its synergy with the CDSD transport due to the optical connections is remarkable. I can get used to the lack of bloom, but I don't think it's ultimately as seductive to me as my Jadis, which I miss. Great back-up to have, though. The other thing to remember about the DCC2 is that it has only one analog input, so it's not as versatile as other line stages. I have to choose between my turntable and my tuner as my analog source, and I find that to be a drawback.
