I’ve been collecting records for almost twenty years and using varying degrees of audio set ups, with nothing that ever blew me away completely (other than the first time I replaced a stock Audio Technica cartridge with a Shure M97x), since I usually just purchased cheap equipment that allowed me to simply play with the distinct sound of vinyl. After recently acquiring a Fluance record player (RT82), a pair of beyerdynamic headphones (DT 770 Pro - 250 ohms) and a set of Klipsch bookshelf speakers, my next mission was to dip my toes into the realm of the vacuum tube sound. The headphones were the main reason I was looking for a headphone amp, since I was unsure that my Sony DH190 2.0 phono receiver would be able to drive them properly (it does), and so I then almost purchased a Schiit headphone amp; I kept browsing Amazon to see if anything else caught my eye (and was cheaper) before buying that.Ultimately, I decided to try this little guy first at half the price and hear for myself if it would be worth it to further travel down this vacuum tube glowy path. It has good looks, good reviews and an even more attractive price point, but I obviously wasn't sure if it would be worth it just to hear a difference (if any). My expectations were at the ceiling for this thing, since I read so many people praising it and the excellent sound it processes... Man, you really don’t know what you were missing until those little tubes warm up, plug in your headphones and play your favorite song. That one piece of music you’ve heard a million times before and listen in it, for the first time ever, a wave of detail, preciseness and clarity. That moment was awesome, perfect and brought excitement back to my record collecting. It's almost as if the tubes bring out that detail and fill in the blanks of whatever was missing in voices and instrumentation due to equipment. Is it a placebo effect? Maybe, but it felt so good that it made me spent a few hours listening to different records and it also brought me here to write this review.To say that it blew my mind is an understatement. Fair warning that this review is coming from a budget conscious audiophile that is always trying to find the best bang for my buck, so it’s obvious that there are probably thousands of better (and more expensive) audio listening configurations. I feel that if you're in a similar situation, this is an absolute must (small) investment to your record playing experience. It immediately felt like it was the missing piece to my set up and I am hoping that the beautiful exterior quality build matches the inside and that it will allow me to enjoy it for some years at least. Every component in the preamp feels sturdy, high quality and that it was made to make it better and produce higher quality audio. I was also able to connect my Sony receiver to it and the sound coming out of the speakers sounds unbelievable as well. The only knock down I have for it is that the tubes are a bit hard to install and to remove, it always feels like they are a squeeze away from breaking, but that really has nothing to do with the amp and more generalized vacuum tube issues.In all, I probably would have been fine if I had never purchased this, but I am so glad I did, because now it feels like it's an essential part of my record playing experience. I wonder how I went so many years without something like this. It seems that Douk is doing something special with audio equipment for the budget minded and I am glad that they are doing an awesome job at it.