I'm now in complete agreement with this statement. I started off with my Sony phone as the source with disappointing results which led me to starting this thread, I then tried a stand-alone DAC - Centrance DACMini CX, it was a major improvement but I wasn't quite happy still, it is a nice resolving DAC but it tends to be a bit accented and dry in the midrange which yielded somewhat nervous presentation with the L100s, it is fun to listen to at first but in the end turns out a bit tiring and distracting from music. I then got hold of Arcam rDac which has a slightly different sound signature, it is more low-end happy and overall not as smooth as the Centrance but somehow it resulted in a more coherent sound. There was some mushiness in the low end the highs were a tad sibilant but I was mostly satisfied with the results. Then finally I threw in a tube pre-amp, well it is actually more of a headphone amp with line-level output. It is the Darkvoice 336SE from Massdrop, Chi-fi it is but one of the better specimens. Not very impressive sounding with the stock Chinese tubes, but extra $20 worth of old USA made replacements goes a long way. That was it. The vocals came alive, bass tightened up, and the highs smoothed out. There is definite synergy between tube coloration and L100 sound signature. Same Yamaha amp. I realize my system isn't going to win any critical listening contests but I can't stop listening to it is so much fun now, guess it makes me another happy L100 owner, but not without some trial and error.