Tube Rolling the Jolida/Black Ice dsd Dac

Ok, 3 months later, and following up on my post above.

I went ahead and splurged on the NOS Millard CV4004 tubes from Upscale Audio. I selected the “Kevin’s stash” and cryo treatment options. Roughly $200/ea.

I cannot overstate this. If you own this DAC, you are doing a disservice to your ears if you are not using these NOS Mullards. Oh. My. God.

It’s like I have an entirely new front end. Warm, clean, articulate, extended highs, HOLOGRAPHIC. Absolutely unreal decay and harmonics. Rhythm and timing is off the charts, and there’s just... more of everything... like MORE of everything there. I’ve heard new little background bits on music I’m intimately familiar with and have been listening to for decades across multiple platforms and formats.

Music just sounds correct. Effortless, spacious, correct timbre, correct timing, liquid, analog, warm, detailed. I’m listening to all my old favorites with my jaw on the floor.

Granted, the $400 tube upgrade is significant for a roughly $800 DAC, but I’m telling you, you will not be disappointed. I believe my DAC journey is over for a while. Time to turn attention to my vinyl front end, I could happily and easily live with this DAC and the NOS Mullards for the rest of my life. 

More notes...

My wife and I listen to music a lot together. Over the years, I’ve realized that she has a really good ear, and can usually articulate changes in equipment very well, often without being told changes have been made. She’s often my unwitting “blind” test for snake oil vs actual improvements.

Accordingly, she was unaware that I swapped the NOS Mullard tubes in a few days ago, and last night was our first chance to really sit down and listen to music together.

After about an hour, she turned to me out of the blue and said “I think your tubes may be finally... how do I describe it, warmed up!? It sounds like everything is just warm and ready to play music. Did you turn them on longer than normal? There’s more fullness and everything is blended together perfectly, even when there’s chaos in the mix.”

I told her about the new tubes, and we listened for a couple more hours, each taking turns pointing out how some part of some song sounded somehow new, and realizing that there’s a lot more detail and music and drive that’s just been unlocked. Nice to see that she has once again confirmed not only her ability to listen intently, but also the validity of the changes I was hearing as well.

I probably have 40-ish hours on the new tubes, so they may continue to settle in this week. Can’t say it enough, if you have this DAC, these are the tubes you want.

For roughly $1000 total (I got a deal on the Black Ice), I have a DAC that I would feel confident putting head to head with anything else out there. Absolutely fantastic!

Good to hear that you're enjoying the Mullards so much, jonstine.  It's amazing what a difference tubes or other small changes can make in our systems.

@jonstine I’m the OP- been using NOS Telefunkens that I’m pretty happy with.  Are these the British Mullards from Upscale you’re referring to?  Pretty tempting.  About 2 weeks ago I replaced the fuse with a SR Orange- pretty nice upgrade.

Old Mullards make everything sound great.  You can throw them in garbage and the trash collector will sing like Frank Sinatra on trash day..