I'd take a quirky source knob over an amp that you say comes with a "horrible" power cord . What is horrible about it ?

If the stock power cord is not good enough to use, I would question the wisdom of even selling such a unit. I don't buy the power cord making an amp better bit anyways .

I had considered this unit once, but the minimalist design was a turn off to me. The lack of tone controls was a big one, because while I understand their reasoning for this, in the real world ...... music is not recorded all the same way. Tone controls done right do nothing but add to an amp, in my opinion.

Happy testing