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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
nikonnola
ghasley
2,544 posts
 
@georgehifi 


The latter badged Wadias are nothing like their predecessors. Not even close. The OP can almost throw a dart at a board with 10 popular current dacs on it and improve materially.
pkvintage's avatar
pkvintage
215 posts
 
Audio Note 1.1 Signature and 2. 1 tube dacs are extremely good value on the used market and within you price range. 

I went from a highly rated and enjoyed NAD M51, $2500.00 new and received a noticeable improvement in the musicality. 
jbhiller's avatar
jbhiller
1,446 posts
 
OP, check out the Doge Audio tube DAC. It’s about $1400 shipped. Parts and build are fantastic. It’s feature rich and sounds amazing. Like you, I’m a vinyl guy. This DAC is just wonderful.

It does DSD, which is one of your requirements. Some of the DAC recommendations above do not, but IMHO are good otherwise.  It has two optical toslink inputs as well as two coax and usb. The chip and usb driver are worth reading about and comparing to other recommendations. 
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