My suggestion would be the Audeze Deckard. First, the synergy is very strong between the Audeze LCD series and the Deckard that has a “warmish” Class A sonic signature for a solid state amp but a very authoritative drive in the bass region without sounding cold or clinical as many amps in that price range can be. Second, the Deckard has a very smooth usb DAC already built in so can be used as a stand alone solution if you want to plug in to a computer and use Tidal, Roon or anything else really that you can listen to on the computer. Third, it has a variable out line so in the future if you still want to add a Woo or any other tube amp, you can use the Deckard for the DAC section and have a “pre-gain” through the variable out on your Deckard.
I find the pre-gain to be a big plus when feeding tube amps and myself am using a Deckard DAC which in turn feeds the Woo. This allows you to find a sweet spot of where the tube amp sounds it’s best. This is another topic in itself and not easy to explain in a short post but think of a car transmission and an engine and you get the idea. It puts the tube amp at a favorable operating zone for best sonic performance.
The Deckard also has 3 gain settings so headphones of all variable sensitivities including ultra sensitive IEM can be used.
Since it has been discontinued you may have to do some hunting for a Deckard but I was able to find a store demo at a discounted price. I love the Deckard.
From the Audeze website:
Cutting-edge industrial design by BMW’s i8 team!
You’ll not only be proud of how the Deckard sounds, it also looks striking on the desktop with beautifully machined heatsinks down each side. Our strategic partner Designworks, a BMW group subsidiary, provided the industrial design for the Deckard. Audeze combined their cutting-edge designs with our own circuit technologies to create an astonishingly accurate sounding headphone amplifier.
