TDAC or Havana?

I have owned both, and to me it's not even close. The Havana is in a different league.

The Tdac is not the same as the Tadac, or the Predac for that matter which was only available for a very short time. I own the most recent 2010 Tdac and to my ears it's a great sounding dac and is supposed to be much better than the Tadac. I've never heard the Havana but I have a difficult time believing it's in a different league than the Tdac. If you're in the N.Y. N.J area I would be more than happy to let you demo the Tdac. FWIW I've also heard the Eastern Electric dac is supposed to be a great sounding dac as well

I own a 2009 Tadac with built in pre and I used to own an MHDT Havana. Both paired with an Empirical Audio Turbo-3.

Neither was a cut above the other, plain and simple. The havana may be a bit more resolving/forward, but the Tadac has a built in preamp that is crucial in my setup. Both sound more similiar than different in my setup (great midrange due to tube design). The MHDT may be less forgiving of a bright/forward setup.

I bought the Tadac on a whim while my Redwine Isabellina was being repaired and once I replaced the cheap chinese tubes with mullard 12au7's, the Isabellina went up for sale.

I'm not sure if this version is what you're asking about (the 2009 TADAC), but I've owned a Benchmark Dac1, a Bel Canto DAC3, the Havana and an Isabellina as well. The Tadac is truly a great DAC if you feed it a clean digital signal and get rid of those cheap tubes it comes with. A good power cord helps as well (as one did with the Havana).

I also replaced the stock eh 12b7 tubes with a pair of Siemens silver plates and it really made a big difference. Paul also has an upgraded power supply for about $150.00 which is supposed to take things to another level.

I owned the TaDac and the PreDac, and the Havana was in another league from both. It had a much deeper and wider soundstage, and much greater bass extension. I had almost the identical set up to what I currently have, and you can look at my system.

I think it helps to know what someone has in their system when they comment on gear to know how it will match with yours.