Rotel pre against Maverick tubemagic

[diklip]

I have been considering the Maverick tubemagic dac/pre after following the thread on that topic.I would just like to know if anyone has some comments regarding the Maverick as opposed to the Rotel RC-1550 pre that I am currently using.Will I be going backwards in terms of the pre function or not?I know that I am getting the DAC feature as well and that would certainly improve thinghs,but purely from a pre-amp perspective.