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  3. 138060-3787

A DAC that crushes price vs. performance ratio

I felt strongly that I wanted to inform the Gon members about a new DAC that ranks with the very best on the market regarding performance, but costs around $2,000.00.  The Lab12 DAC1 SE was compared to three reference level DACS that retail for over $12.000.00 in my review for hometheaterreview.com and was at least on the same level sonicly, if not better.  This DAC from Greece is not just "good for the money" but competes with virtually anything on the market regardless of price!

For all the details about the Lab12 DAC1 SE performance and what other DACS it was compared to take a look at the review.  If you are shopping/looking for a new digital front end to drive your system, you owe it to yourself to check this DAC out, unless you like to spend tons of more $ without getting better performance.
teajay
celander's avatar
celander
1,503 posts
 
I reread this review before scheduling a visit to the Libertyville shop that carries this DAC. It appears that the review’s critical listening commentary pertains to the DAC fitted with a NOS CCA 1962 Siemens tube rather than the DAC fitted with the stock 6922 tube.

Since consumers are going to audition the stock unit, I’m wondering whether Terry might provide additional insight about his listening impressions of the stock unit.

I could not find a supplier of the NOS CCA 1962 Siemens cited in the review. So it will be challenging to capture all of the sonic qualities reported in the review.
teajay OP
1,705 posts
 
Hey celander,

Here's the answers to your questions:

1) I scored my NOS CCA 1962 Siemens from Brent Jesse.

2) All the details regarding how the DAC sounded/performed presented in the review apply to Lab12 with the stock tubes and the Siemens.  

3) Yes, with the Siemens you get a little more of an "organic" sound then with the stock tubes, but either way the DAC sounds wonderful.

4) Mike Kay (Audio Archon) has at least three different excellent NOS 6922 tubes that he can provide, along with the standard stock tube, to tailor the sound to your personal taste.  However, with the stock tube it's a great musical presentation.
celander's avatar
celander
1,503 posts
 
@teajay Thank you. This is very helpful info! 
gosta's avatar
gosta
839 posts
 
Interesting with all this interest in a simple DAC. Anyone can build a "fantastic" DAC. When it's all about speakers and the room. I'm perfectly happy with a Yamaha WXC-50 feeding my ATC 150 ASL. Yes, I also got more expensive ones and a Diana from 1992 (will crush all others...).
rbstehno
1,492 posts
 
Teajay- I can’t believe what you said in your response: “This NOS Phillips DAC chip is extremely held in high esteem by many listeners/designers because if used in the right way”. So you are saying that only 1 manufacturer can perform magic on a budget/cheap chip to make it sound much better than all the more common chips used in 99% of the other well known dacs. 

I didn’t make my comments up, if you do a search on your chip, you will find a lot of people indicating it’s a cheap budget chip.

when I did audition many dacs years ago, most of the top manufacturers used a common set of chips.

Like I said, if a dac doesn’t use FPGA, I won’t even look at it, so no, I didn’t review your dac and I didn’t claim I did.
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