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Tubes or not

Currenty I have a Wadia Di22 . I'm thinking of replacing it with a tube dac. I'm tube upstream . I'm afraid a tube DAC will bust the bank for the improvement I would hear. I don't want to replace it because it's not tube. I think I I can get a better non tube DAC for the price of a good tube DAC if you don't have an idea that is less than $1500 don't ask me about my equipment. That's a quick filter on multiple levels. I just want to squeeze as much as I can from the signal as I can for best price.98% of the other time vinyl is playong
128x128nikonnola
audioman58's avatar
audioman58
4,222 posts
 
Just check out this new Lampizator Amber3 dac for under $3k 
it is a steal ,I sold my flagship PS audio dac that was 2x the price .

https://www.headphone.guru/lampizator-amber-iii-hi-res-dac-review-by-enjoy-the-music-com/


georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
nikonnola
  Currenty I have a Wadia Di22 .
Wadia's are great dacs, this Wadia has a great output stage ,<100ohms output impedance and is capable of giving up to 4v se, 8v xlr output!!

 I hope you took the preamp out (if one was used) and tried it direct into your power amp and then used the Wadia's inbuilt volume control

Cheers George
f917025
81 posts
 
 tubes! but only nos...
when i buy tube gear i think about what's the best nos tubes i can afford for it. i also try to get components with tube types that i know and like (12ax7 12au7 6v6 el34 for example) .ive recently added the ifi itube(tube buffer/preamp 100$ used ) to my system after the dac and i love it. you can get a fancier tube buffer or preamp for 1k and a nicer ss dac for 500 more and get a big improvement without losing the ability to upgrade only the dac in a few years time. 

rwortman's avatar
rwortman
41 posts
 
You can buy a completely transparent DAC for less than $500, in some cases much less.  Tubes are not required.
grannyring's avatar
grannyring
6,541 posts
 
Never required, but sometimes preferred.  
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