i posted my responce and questions as a reply to knuckledraggers post below

BTW hello everyone and thanks for having me.

Lee Ross

Harlingen, Tx

You came to the right place. I admire and envy pilots. You'll soon be glad you didn't drop the dough on the raptor

and yes, digital audio over usb is a fine standard, though the ultra high end dac selection with usb is pretty thin.

MPX3 is most likely much better money spent over the raptor, and was my favorite out of the sp line.

Actually my opinion is a bit different. You had a tube preamp, and

a levinson solid state amp, so the tube preamp takes the edge off

of what many consider to be a slightly dark amplifier. Overall still

a glorious combo.

Depending on what headphones you settle on, you would be much

better off with an extreme, or anything similar because the first

gain stage tube is most like the gain stage in your old tube preamp.