Indeed. The MBL looks like an excellent preamp hiding behind an ostentatious example of outrageous bling.
I haven't used an audio preamplifier for some time, but I just replaced my preamp substitute, a Topping DX7s DAC/HA, with an AVP (the IOTAVX 7.1 4K), simply because I wanted to add DSP room correction plus a center channel for movies. I am well aware that the IOTAVX AVP DAC (Cirrus Logic CS42528 - based) fed by HDMI from my HTPC, is unlikely to approach the measured performance of my USB-fed Topping DAC, but before I sell the Topping, I will connect it to one of the AVP's line-level inputs to see if I can hear any improvement over the AVP DAC. I doubt that I will be able to hear a difference, and I expect that if Amir ever gets the excellent and affordable IOTAVX AVP to test, it will likely measure far below the Topping, but its SINAD should be below the threshold of audibility.
LOL! The MBL in white and gold would look good in the $100 million three-story Manhattan penthouse of a famous person whose name cannot be mentioned here at ASR. (I don't think the owner is into audio, however, but he apparently loves gold.)
View attachment 71073