Hi Jamie,
Yeah, I know. Plenty of people love their Quickie. I just found that the batteries drain so fast, and so I did not buy into the argument that this is actually better. For me, having to get batteries all the time is a drag. I would get a power supply in a heartbeat if it were worthwhile. I don't need an off-the-grid amp, and while I agree that there could be noise coming from the power line to the house and from the wiring in the house to the audio equipment, I don't think that I could tell the difference. Hey, I am not even sure that I could tell a difference between listening to my CDs with or without a DAC in the signal chain in a blinded study!
I just like the tube sound.
Since my power amp or integrated amp are already tube-based, I used a SS pre-amp, if I actually needed one. I now have a Smash, and I really like it. May try some inexpensive SS power amp mono-blocks behind that sometime. Cheers,
FS