Four days now with the Shiit Vidar 2 and using the SYS passive source selector (can't really call it a preamp.) It would be exhausting to relate the variety of music I've thrown at it. Overall I'm really pleased. I find the amp quite warm, stuff like dynamic range, transients, imaging etc is very good. In a word... speaker control! Still evaluating but I'm confident I'll keep it.
@hboden, I'm keenly interested in DAC experience. I've dedicated an iPad mini gen 5 with Plexamp (player) as a kiosk accessing my FLAC library. Now, for comparison I've also run off my SSL 2+ audio interface connected to a M2 Mac mini, so whatever DAC circuit SSL uses. I feel like there is a subtle but worthwhile improvement, sort of like the very subtly more revealing you get between pedestrian and good cables. On forums the science guys claim DACs are mostly snake oil in contrast to tons of non-scientific anecdotal DAC praise.
My budget would allow something like Modi 5 or Fiio K11 etc, or even Mimir.
Apart from DAC, I would like some tone control and while I'm not sure I need it I would also like some gain capability. So , for example, I could do a Schiit Saga pre but I'd still need a Loki Mini+ for EQ. Mimir w/Forkbeard has a parametric but only 3 band and using an app instead of knobs, plus it's not DSP, just microprocessor. To further confuse things, Schitt has the Eitr 2, and the Shiit Buf claims 12db gain.
I just don't know where to go with all this stuff, where to start. I'm thinking maybe I should start with adding some gain first then see if bypassing the iPad DAC still appeals. And apparently to bypass the iPad DAC I'll need the Apple Lightning to USB 3 cable and a USB 3 to USB C cable to connect a USB C DAC. Sheesh!