Tube or R-2R DAC for Tube System

@hshifi -  "I would say stick to chip based DACs with tube gear"  Not sure how you came to that conclusion.  Just finished a 4 hour listening session with tube Sabre 32 bit chip dac and a R2R DHT dac in an all tube system preamp and Class A mono blocks.  We all said to each other, that not one of us has heard any system ever that sounded like this, ever.

Happy Listening.

I like the dsd converting dac. Psaudio and Marantz sacd 30N . best of both worlds . smooth and not too clinical .

@bigkidz,
That sounds like a very fun listening experience. I know that you have several transports to choose from. Were you all using the Pro-Ject RS2 Transport?
Charles 

Your best decision, in my opinion and experience, is stick with tubes to get the best of digital and analog.  I have an all-tube system (Octave MRE 220's with SBB) and an Octave Jubilee Pre). Admittedly, my server is all SS (Antipodes K50).

I bought the Lampizator Pacific DAC w/300B tubes.  It is the best audio purchase I have ever made. The Lampi Pacific produces an analog-like sound, which rivals the best turntable, tonearm, cartridge and phono-amp combination money can buy, but with noticeably more bandwidth in the audio spectrum  - so it ups the ante in terms of delivering unprecedented realism.

Wait for it!  Soon the sound of the skeptics and critics, who will pull out their rifles filled with homemade amo cast from the forges of their misery, envy and frustration.  Fire away my sadlizes!  I won't be able to hear you over the beautiful sound of my Pacific DAC.

You mentioned the Doge 7 tube dac. I have one with 6 nos 12ax7

West German Telefunkens and 2 GEC Marconi 12au7 power tubes

I stream hi-res with ifi Neo streamer to a Vincent Class A hybrid

amp to Forte IVs. The Fortes were a bit too sharp until I put

the Vincent in the mix replacing a Yamaha as2200. I also had

tried a SET amp but both the class A/B Yamaha and the Decware

SET emphasized certain frequencies that made the tweeter

horn too aggressive. The class A (for first 10 watts)

Vincent brought serious weight to the bottom end of the

Fortes and made everything gel and balanced them out nicely.

I spent alot on tubes though and recently bought a tube tester

where I found the majority of the cheap Chinese tubes

that came with dac tested bad and all but one of the NOS

tubes I purchased tested good after several years of use.

The Chinese tubes were only in a couple months so go figure.

Bottom line is I now have an amazing bottom end to match

the amazing midrange and highs. The Yamaha is a great

amp but I couldn’t quite get the same weight in the bottom

even with tone controls and the SET is more of a tube rolling

toy considering its just 2.3 watts per channel but very good

too in its own right. I’m curious aboout R2R dacs too but my streaming

already sounds as good as my vinyl with the Doge so

I can recommend it if you want to deal with tubes which 

can be fussy. I'll bet McIntosh SS with R2R is amazing.