Ordered Audio-GD 19 MK3, according to Kingwa it'll probably take 2 weeks to deliver,
like squall343 not ordering the higher end simply because lack of usb input, most of my listening now through my laptop.
Like him I too have Citypulse 2.03 and yes, headphone out is not that impressive and now volume control start to give
some kind of screeching sound at certain position, I think there's problem with the potentiometer.
Now it can only be used as pure DAC. So got myself Promitheus TVC as pre-amp, sound great but lament about lack of remote control and that
got me thinking of revamping the whole gear. Almost ordering C2C together with 19MK3 till I saw 'Phoenix', e-mail Kingwa and expected date mid-June. It's just perfect item for me since it's a remote pre-amp + great headamp all in one. I'm not using it as 'desktop' hi-fi so remote control head-amp is quite important to me.
Enough rambling.

Yes, that the initial plan, I actually e-mail Kingwa asking him to put cast output to the 19MK3 after reading in head-fi forum
that someone already did that but his reply mirrored yours i.e unbalanced out to balanced cast in won't get full potential.
What's stopping me from going higher is lack of USB i/p ( price too but I'd buy dsp base if usb i/p avail ) also my power amp
does not have XLR input. I am not a serious headphone user, most of my listening through normal amp+speaker. What attract me to 'Phoenix' is not the balanced config but the combination of amp+head amp with remote.