NON OS DACS

are there any true balanced non os dac's ???

I own the Audio Mirror as well, and my opinion based on my experience is similar to Clio09's. I'm pretty surprised that a $500 DAC can sound this big, bold and musical. The only upsampling DAC I've owned that has similar attributes is the Kora Hermes tube DAC.

I'm a committed zero sampling fan. I like the Audio Note DACs, but also have a Wavelength Audio zero sampling DAC in a headphone system which is just as nice. They sound very natural. Smooth, dynamic and certainly all-day listenable! The upsamplers I've had sounded more digital, more artificial. Some are nice, but the zero samplers can't be beat, IMO.

I've been seeing alot about this Audio Mirror Dac. Seems like some good stuff! It reminds me of some of the Dacs from DIYCLUB.com. I almost bought one to try it out. But since I was having an integrated amplifier built. I had the designer to make me a NOS Dac as well to match it. It doesn't have tubes. I may add some type of tube buffer..just for a taste of tube magic eventually.These are good times as prices for some good stuff is with in reach.

I've tried the upsampling thing.Great dynamics but waaaay too much top end. It can be very fatiguing.You need plenty of tubes in front of it to smooth things out.All this stuff about getting super high frequencies is nonsense too me.
I tested my hearing two days ago. I hear up to 18 or 19khz.
Anything past that is a waste of time to even worry about.Makes me think some of this equipment is spec for hype more than anything else.

Gmood1, it seems like you have excellent hearing! Especially if you are a male of our species, heheh.