Another new DAC: Audio Mirror

I've had one of these DACs in my system for 2-3 weeks now. It's still burning in each time sounding better than each previous day. It is very musical! Seamless, fluid and dynamic. I understand why Audio Note stuck with this chip. My reference points are a Rega DAC R that I was stuck on because despite its shortcomings is very musical and frames the music like a good TT. My other reference point is my TT DV XV1s/TW Raven/AC controller/10.5 arm/Tron Seven Phono. The gap between my TT and Rega DAC was more of every parameter being relatively constrained but the music framed in the same manner that's why I was hesitant to move off it. This Audio Mirror DAC, not fully broken substantially narrows the gap with the TT and with nothing lost. I plan to wait until its fully broken in before experimenting with cables and fuses. At this point no need to it sounds that good very similar to quality vinyl playback. Interesting how it makes some of those older CD mastering sound so good! Its improved every CD in my collection so far, none dropping off or not listenable which is so common with many digital units. I always believed you don't have to spend over $2K to get into top shelf digital.

First Professional review of the Audio Mirror Tubadour III  Just out in the April Edition of "Enjoy the Music" by Ron Nagel...Just My 2cents but These kind of Review's always Leaves me scratching my Head..Very little (I MEAN NONE) Info on the  Tonality...soundstage (Height..width..depth)...dynamic range & contrasts..ect...ect..and goes on to compare it to of all dac's a  Music Hall 25.3 DAC! (which i owned years ago and used it on a cheap sony player in my sony based garage system) Let alone any comparison to any other mid priced dac's (Holo audio..Mytek...Schitt....Bechmark to name a few).and found very little useful info besides Ron spending about a 1/3 of his print on the attractive front panel(really!) yet he ends with    "I highly recommended it for its overall musical performance and price. And I recommended it for the sound shaping flexibility only Vacuum Tubes can offer you"..and gives it mostly 4 1/2 notes out of 5..How would could you make a sound buying Decision on This type (0r lack Of) Review??.This is not the first time Ron Nagel's Reviews left my wanting (and how he got this Gig??) and find his "Style"...Confusing & Empty to put it mildly...Read it yourself and share your thoughts...as with anything Audio... YMMV

I'm with you audio123... very similar to the review he published of the Audio Mirror monoblocks... just a lot of useless preamble and then one paragraph describing the sound. Finally, he rates it with 3 notes for the bass with no explanation why! Given that these are designed around a Russian triode allowing for use of wide bandwidth transformers for exceptional bass performance, this is a real shocker! I believe these components deserve better than these two 'reviews'

I agree... this review is a total joke. Funny it was released on April 1st :). It feels like the stars for each category are automatically filled out based on the fact it has a tube - lack of bass, good highs, excellent midrange. This is not what I heard when I had this DAC at my house and listened to it. In fact this whole idea of stars per category is a complete BS in my opinion, especially when they are subjectively rated by different reviewers.

The AM is a world class Hi-Fi DAC at a Lo-Fi price.
I compared it against a Denafrips Terminator, which is another direct sale DAC compared to DACs double its price. After hearing how the Audio Mirror DAC sounded, I sold my Terminator.

Like a typical audiofool, the low price tag and small size turned me off, and I built the top of the line reference Audio Note Kits DAC with the best quality parts. It’s a 40 lbs. beast almost the size of my PS Audio Power Plant P20. After a few months of break in period I brought the Audio Mirror DAC back in my system. The ANK sounded a little better on some recordings, and the difference was indistinguishable on many. I do prefer the ANK, but they are so close. The AM with a better source sounded better than the ANK with a worse source.

The source matters A LOT with these DACs. When I switched the linear power supply on my source with another linear power supply, I heard much bigger difference overall than what I heard while I compared the ANK and AM DACs. In the past year I changed a lot of digital sources. I went from a decent source to a good source, to a better source, to an even better source. Every time I changed the source I was amazed what both of these DACs could deliver. I haven’t reached a limit yet. Those DACs have so much potential that you can reveal by improving your source... I can’t believe it was reviewed with a Sony UHP-H1 player.

Put an Innuos Statement in front of this DAC, and see what it can do. In fact I would put an excellent sounding source and an Audio Mirror DAC against ANY DAC at ANY PRICE fed by Ron’s Sony player. 
I am not saying it is the best DAC at any price. Not at all! There are better DACs (my tweaked ANK DAC is a little better in my opinion but I have never heard a tweaked AM DAC either). Just disappointed to see another completely useless review!

I pilled the trigger and ordered the Holo Spring 2 level 2 DAC. I should get it in a couple of week. I will post on my analysis of the unit.