Non Analytical Sounding DAC Upgrade- Budget $1,500 or less

Check out the Black Ice FX tube dac.   Won a blind dac shootout from the Arizona audio society.   Love mine and the 2 12AX7 tube can be changed easily to dial in the sound.

Audio Mirror Tubadour III, excellent DAC!

It uses the same chip as the high end Audio Note DACs. I have the SE version and it compares to my $20k tt setup :-) Do a search on audiogon, lots of info and comparisons to high end products.

Audio Mirror Tubadour is another one to check out

I have the Musical Paradise MP D2 mk iii with an AKM 4997 and was previously using a Denafrips Pontus.
I was considering the Audio Mirror Tubadour but for a budget I don’t want to overspend too much on a DAC.

I prefer the Musical Paradise, out of the box all stock it is nice compared to the Denafrips. The MP doesn’t color the sound. I also like how layered the texture of the details is and is very clear. It is smooth and added the warmth of the tubes. It is all stock tubes at the moment with Obligato Caps and the fun part is tou can always upgrade the tubes and caps.

+2 for the Audio Mirror Tubadour III DAC. You don’t need the SE version to get terrific music out of it!

FWIW, I compiled a short list by reading and researching. I don’t have personal experience with these products but I want to contribute what I learned. I wanted R2R and/or tube.

I was very, very close to getting the Audio Mirror Tubadour and the maker wrote write back when I had a question. Some really good experienced people on this forum love the Audio Mirror.

I also read very good stuff about the Denafrips Ares -- backordered by a long time, last I saw.

I got the MHDT Orchid DAC. Why the Orchid? After a lot of research, I learned two things -- the Orchid is the most raved about of all their products. It’s the chip inside -- apparently only the Orchid has the Philips TDA1541 chip. This was a chip which people realized was older and had a more analog type sound. So, people were buying old CD players up like crazy, and the maker of the MHDT DAC, Jiun, bought a bunch of these chips to have a supply for the Orchid. Do I really know if the chip is key? No -- I really don’t. But I have been loving this DAC for about a month and the company is really easy to deal with, despite being in Taiwan. Buy via Ebay or through Linear Tube Audio. Those guys are great.

I have the Orchid in my computer system and have been very happy with it.  I listen mainly through Harbeth P3ESR with a PSA S1500 sub driven by a Vincent SV 237 integrated.  I also have a Simaudio 430 HA headphone amp and an assortment of headphones that I listen to occasionally.  In terms of detail, this system rivals my main system and in some ways sounds better.

I've had an Orchid for several months and after replacing the 1541A chip with a Philips/Taiwan(non S1 or S2- too expensive), replacing the 2.0 uF caps with 1.0uF Mundorfs, and tube rolling(finally settled on a RCA 5670), am pleased to say that sound quality is excellent....listening through Harbeth 40.1's. Transport is an Audiolab 6000.

All the above plus Border Patrol.

A nice thing about the Tubadour is you can buy it in stock form now to fit your budget and make a significant upgrade to SE status in the future if desired. Nice to have the option. You can read the review by @teajay in Stereo Times that compares the Tubadour SE to the Orchid.  Best of luck.

Definitely the Tubadour lll

I too am curious about the Tubadour. For those reading this thread in the future, you may also consider the Holo Audio Spring Dac which is a R2R Dac that offers a very musical presentation. I have been using one for a couple of years now and am very pleased with it.

Schitt Yggdrasil GS. 1600.00 new. 
Insanely good music maker.

+1 on the Black Ice (Jolida) Tube Dac. Very musical. 

 +1 on Tubadour. Have had it 1 year. Did shoot out with MHTD Orchid and there is just more musicaliycoming out of Tubadour III

@phill55 -- Can you say more? I almost got the Tubadour and went for the Orchid. I'm curious about what differences you heard and what equipment you used. The grass is always greener...

Used chord Qutest.
add a LPS

boom

Yea, Chord Qutest new slightly over your budget...  Good luck finding a used one...  Not analytical...  Clean, crisp, concise, musical...

Audio-gd R8 DAC with FPGA programable. 
Very neutral with plenty of detail and big soundstage. 

I purchased the Schiit Gungnir MB about six months ago. I've been very impressed so far.

Chord Qutest incredible value; according to the designer Rob Watts, they selected the best power supply for the overall low noise design; stick with the stock supply and you can’t go wrong.
Immensely musical for the price of admission.

I have following DACs at moment between work and two home systems:
benchmark 2
chord mojo
chord 2qute
border patrol 

The Border Patrol and Benchmark exist on opposite ends of the “precise you can see into everything” - to - “non fatiguing and organic” spectrum, but I appreciate both.  The 2qute strikes a great balance, and hence is in main system, but I’d never call it fatiguing.

Given how cheap the mojo is (I’d call it the best deal in this entire hobby), could start there and save some coin, and if you like the sound but want even better: Qutest or used 2qute. If you want even more “organic” you can then try something else suggested previously in thread (or Border Patrol, which is highly recommend and is my go to in my 2nd system). You won’t lose very much money reselling the mojo, that I’m sure of.

+1 on the Black Ice FX tube dac.  I was involved in the DAC shoot-out in AZ and I was blown away by how good this DAC sounded, especially at the price.

I don’t know what pricing is like in the ‘States, but you might have a look at the range by Cocktail Audio (www.cocktailaudio.com).
They have a good range with a big downloadable table of product features for each product. I have the X45Pro and think it is a great sounding streamer/dac/ripper etc. These products from Novatron in Sth Korea aren’t well known it seems but after 12 mths of good use I think it’s fantastic.

I am 95% vinyl and have budget digital in my main rig but I would suspect, since I have not heard it, the Audio Mirror DAC is very good. I would have given it a try but it was out of my digital budget. My view is based on reading user reviews of the AM dac, and working with Vlad when he built my SET 45W mono blocks. He was easy to work with and support was great. Plus the amps just sound great in my system. Very pure, natural, spacious, non-fatiguing music of any sort.

I have an RME ADI-2 DAC FS. It sounds great. has a million ways you can adjust the sound. $1,150.00.

I have mhdt pagoda ! The sound was so natural ! I have compare it with my vinyl , they are sound very similar! I can listening for all day without fatigue!

I’d recommend contacting Wyred 4 Sound. They have some new old stock options available that don’t show on their website. I picked up a DAC2DSD-SE that was within your budget. 

So many great recommendations. I have heard the Chord, Benchmark, Black Ice, and MHDT Pagoda. All of them are great.

Here’s another you may want to look at: https://doge.audio/product/doge-7-tube-dac/

I bought mine for $1400 a year or so ago, but the trade war has bumped up the price a bit.

I love the unit. I think it rivals many DACs costing thousands.

The Sparkler Audio S504 DAC has a great analogue sound. Had it over a year and highly recommend it. Also just got the RME ADI-2 for my other system and that sounds great so far as well. 

So glad to read of all these great DAC options! I'm struggling to understand what "analytical" means to different people. For those mentioning units they like, I'd be curious about what they sound like and why you think they satisfy the poster's question for a non-analytical sound.

@hilde45   Analytical to me means bright, shrill, harsh, sometimes lacking in fullness. Out of tonal balance if you like.

It's what the sound was like when using a Rega DAC in my system. Of course, it depended on the source, some songs being not so harsh as others.
I realised I wasn't enjoying my listening sessions so much anymore. It had got to the stage where I couldn't stand listening to some music so avoided it even though they were some of my favourite artists. This is not a good place to be in.

When I changed the Rega out for a Denafrips Ares, all of that harshness vanished. The bass had some real tuneful heft to it and the treble was much more natural sounding without sounding as though it was artificially rounded off. It sounded......fuller.
Previously really bad sounding tracks were now much more pleasant to listen to.

When I upgraded to the Denafrips Pontus DAC I was even happier and remain so.

If the Denafrips family colours the music, as mentioned above in one reply, it does so in a wonderful way.
Ian

@ken7, of the Orchid mods, do you know which may have yielded the greatest bang for buck, or ease of installation?  Did you try other tubes first, can you comment on their sound?  I have this unit and love it but who doesn't love to tweak something for the right price/reward ratio.

Thanks, @ianrodger. I didn't know "analytical" was a negative — I thought it meant toward the more crisp, clean, maybe lighter side of the spectrum — which was a set of characteristics some people like. Now I realize it's a cluster of negative qualities (in your definition). The OP said "overly analytical" but I suspect that you mean that — not all analytical is bad, but too much is…well, too much!

@ken7, I second the question by akgwhiz about the Orchid. I'm interested in playing around with it, too.

I just pulled the trigger on an Orchid this week. I've also got a CEC TL5 coming to pair with it. I bought it with the upgraded Tung Sol  since you get the standard tube as well. 

@hilde45 I think analytical is negative depending on how one views such things. I think your understanding is spot on. 

I was listening to a friend's system (Conrad Johnson, Totem, Rega) and it was good, but too analytical. My friend called it revealing and admitted that there was music he loved that he couldn't listen to on it. I shoot for what I call musical, which means the system is there to play music not "recordings." He loves his system, I admired it, but could never live like that. But he completely understood and that was his preference and I respect that.

Now I have to figure out where I can get me one of those Western Electric tubes everyone is going on about. 

@letch I'd be interested to hear about your experiments. Perhaps start a thread called "Tube-rolling with the MHDT Orchid DAC"? It's a popular enough product that we might find some interesting contributions which detail how different tubes and associated equipment combine to create different sonic outcomes. 
One person relayed the following to me:
Brighter: GE 5670 5-star (stock tube); a good tube.
Softer: Tesla 6cc42; great midpoint tube.
Extra soft: Western Electric 2C51

@ruleof72

You said " I’m definitely open to other suggestions." so I’m going out on a limb here with another suggestion. I am not disparaging anyone’s choice on a DAC this is addressed to the OP. You mention non analytical DAC then describe your system having a NAD integrated. The NAD is fairly analytical which to me means it reproduces what is fed to it as accurately as possible. If you decide to keep a fairly precise SS amp then the products mentioned so far would probably meet your expectations. On the other hand if you move to a tube system the idea of adding a tube DAC or other tube sounding DAC just adds more coloration to the tube amps. In my opinion in order to get the "flavor" of your tube preamps or amps it makes more sense to go with as neutral a DAC as possible. The more precise the DAC at conveying the signal without adding or taking away in other words analytical would give you a much better idea at what the tubes offer in your tube components. So far I have seen 1 DAC mentioned the Benchmark and it is a pretty neutral DAC. There are others that would qualify as neutral pretty much any modern Delta Sigma DAC.

I would generally agree with djones51 above... I have always felt the best place to add warmth or color, if its wanted or needed, is in the PreAmp stage... And PreAmp tubes seem to last much longer then tubes in a Power Amp... Horses for courses and we all have different ears/brains...  In my case its a Chord Qutest DAC -> PremaLuna Tubed PreAmp -> McIntosh SS Power Amp -> MartinLogan ESL speakers...

@hilde45 
This thread already exists:

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/mhdt-orchid-tube-rolling

My amplifier is out for repair (Sonic Frontiers Power 2se) and I've been told that I can expect 10-14 weeks for turnaround. Ugh. What will be interesting it that I'm going to be placing my transport/DAC into my friend's "revealing" system since his is vinyl only. This will an opportunity to get my unit burned in and also to tube roll in this system. The sad part is that I won't get to listen to it at home. I am considering getting a cheap amp to do duty while I await repair. 

@letch Sorry to miss that! I appreciate you directing me to it. As Emily Litella said (all you oldies know where I'm going): "never mind."

@ruleof72 ,  I've been using the Musical Paradise MP-D2 (Mk2) for about 2 years now. I was consiering the Doge 7 unit mentioned earlier when I happened on the MP-D2 on Audiocircle.

The biggest advantage to the MP-D2, is variability and flexibility in components. 3 DAC chips to choose from, 12v and 6v tube options and a myriad of easily swappable cap options. You don't have to keep changing dacs to achieve a certain sound, you can do it with tube swaps and DAC chips if you like. Much less expensive over the long haul.

The AKM chip options would get you closer to the sound you're after than the Sabre chip offered. Output and rectifier tubes have the largest impact on sound. Honestly, the stock rectifier and driver tubes are adequate but there's definitely room for improvement.

If you're still considering it, be sure to check out the large thread on the audiocircle discless forum. 
  

I can also recommend the Chord Qutest. I had it in my system briefly as a loaner and was mightily impressed. A friend of mine  who has had or heard a multitude of DACS hhas said that the Qutest is the best he's heard under $5000.00.

Hey Ruleof72,

Tom_hankins is onto something here. I drove up to Newhall (CA) before the shutdown to A/B some dacs in the Schiit showroom (the Schiitr!) and wow did that make it easy. I listened to Gungnir multibit and Yggdrasil thru speakers and many sets of cans. Both were so round and musical but Yggy kicked Gumby’s a-- with its clearly bigger stage.

But I still could not make myself write the check for $2600 plus. So Eddie showed me the Yggdrasil GS (garage sale!) for $1549, a bargain and every bit as good, I think. It’s got the 1.0 boards refurbed w/current firmware into a new chassis, using gen5 USB (not Unison but so what).

Lots of you here have a newer/pricier rig than me, but on mine, Qobuz thru the Node 2i (bypassing the inboard dac) now sounds pretty close to vinyl. And cds (thru an Audiolab 6000 transport) sound way-y better than ever. Of course, my rig is a vintage Carver stack with old school Kef 104/2’s, but now it gets a workout every day. Good luck!

Chord Qutest. I own and enjoy it. Detailed, not at all analytical, does hires and DSD, has filters that you can use to tailor the sound to match the rest of your gear. Also has 1v, 2v or 3v output selections. Highly recommended. 
If you don’t need DSD and MQA and only listen to redbook and stream up to 192, a used Bryston BDA-2 is an excellent choice as well. 

The newest Musical Paradise unit is a giant killer.  I have it with some NOS tubes and the Crystek clocks.  Fabulous lush sound and it has user changeable caps and will accept 12 and 6 volt signal tubes.

While I own the Orchid, I have to admit to be very curious about Chord, not least because of the talk given by Rob Watts in this 2017 video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXyjsSYjnL8
His knowledge and experience shine through and I learned a lot. 

That said, I do wonder about R2R Soekris DACs. It strikes me as one of those sleeping giants, still mostly under the radar and not part of the "buzz," but perhaps one of the best values out there. I've yet to hear one. I don't know if it would sound analytical or not.

+1 on the Border Patrol DAC....

Most of my serious listening has been/is vinyl; but, my modest CD collection is made much more enjoyable now because of the BP DAC. I may actually explore digital further because of the this DAC.

Just buy a $299 musical fidelity v dac 90. You would save tons of money and still get a great sounding dac. I don't feel like I'm missing anything. I think it's a freaking bargain if there ever was one. Sterephile seems to agree and gave it class A component status! 

to respond to akgwhiz, replacing the 1541A chip is not difficult....just need to gently pry out existing chip(you can buy a special tool on Amazon for this) and carefully put in the replacement making sure that all the pins are aligned properly before pushing down. Also replacing the caps is quite easy....just requires a bit a soldering skills. Mu unit(used) came with a WE 5670 installed and it proved to be extremely dull making music sound lifeless. I also tried several GE 5670's and thought they were a bit too glarey. Finally settled  on a RCA 5670 'Command' which provided the right balance for my system. Tube rolling makes a definite difference....but I can't say how much difference compared to the slight mods referenced above. Also some of the improvements made could be attributed to the Audiolab 6000 Transport that feeds the Orchid but I can't evaluate this addition as I have nothing to compare it with. And finally I had been using a Marantz 8001 which was a highly regarded unit in its day butI'm getting so much more enjoyment with the Orchid.

Regarding the stock Chord Electronics Qutest power supply. It may work well with the Qutest but injects an enormous amount of noise into your AC electrical system. I didn't detect an improvement in sound when I replaced it with an ifi iPower linear supply but all the electrical noise disappeared, my phono stages were dead quiet again.

My choice for under $1.5k DACs would be the Black Ice Audio Glass FX DSD tube DAC, $799 new.