Sksos1, i don't doubt your senses, but it is not a fair compairson looking at the asked price. If it was double, it had been much. For that price of the SMC VRE-1, i had personally been looking at a better cdp or dac with an analog preamp section (i think). I am really looking for a pre only for the source, possible one more input and the rest is just not needed for me. However, i find it difficult finding such a unit. Mostly i have read that the passives seems to offer a fine degree of resolving power, perhaps lacking in slam, weight and ultimate dynamics. Kind of what i do not wish to trade off either.
I had rather put an extra 1-2K if i had that money, to update my speakers to a Masterstack set:-D