Gotcha, thats pretty nice then
Not sure about the MK1+ but my MK2 came with ok’ish tubes (now swopped out lol) but it’s full tube and not a hybrid so not really any good for the OP 
I think the power tubes helps the MK2 but also not sure if the pre-amps tubes in the MK2 is the same as the MKI. The ones in the link above are the ones I got with mine. I’ve never heard a MK2 but people seem to have a general view that the stock tubes are decent.
I bought the MK1 about 4 years ago so this going on memory but when I swapped for EF95 Mullards and Voshkods the amp became a new amp completely.
What do you guys think of the Garage 1217 Company? Ive heard a lot about them and they come highly rerecorded. their Project Starlight is only 170$ prebuilt:
http://garage1217.com/garage1217_diy_tube_headphone_amplifiers_007.htm
Its highly customizable
I don’t know since I have never heard it, but it seems nice. I don’t know if it would be good with a planar though, but it is a hybrid so it would be fine in theory
the descriptions sound awesome, and their so customizable. i wish Z would do a review of these
I have Project Polaris and it’s really nice. I’d wager that starlight sounds as good, if not better than Vali 2 stock. And then you can go crazy putting in more variety of tubes than Vali 2 can accept
You can find CTH (cavelli tube hybrid) secondhand on avexchange going for around $200 or less sometimes.
Also another great option if you can get the deal
I have a used Valhalla 2 that squeeks in at $220. I send the pre out to my Magni 3. This powers Open Alphas with tube sound. So I guess what I’m saying is, if you have a good solid state, just buy an OTL tubey to get you dat tube sound, and make your own hybrid setup.
remind me…what does OTL mean again?
Output transformerless
Never thought about that. So could get a darkvoice, enjoy it with dynamics, and then use an Atom to make it planar friendly. 
Yup, you can use it as a tube preamp or buffer
I think it’s the best way to go. You get the sound, it is fantastic with dynamics, and it can be fantastic on planars too.
Yes yes! I have a DV that I use as both an amp and pre-amp to another headphone amp. The beauty of this is you can always bypass and use the SS amp as intended with no tube flavor added. Its the best of all worlds and lets you run everything you own! See attached picture.
Now, if only someone would make a switch box that would make this easy. I have to muck about with cables to go OTL > SS then again to go OTL > powered monitors or DAC > SS after having it go DAC > OTL > SS. I don’t want 3 Schiit SYS switches in my stack. It needs to have almost like an FX send/return loop or something.
Yep, I wish the DV had an A/B switch or would not bypass sound to the speakers when headphones plugged in. That’s the price I have to pay for going budget priced. There’s always a price to pay. There’s a thread somewhere about switches though. Mayberry one of those would help you?