Thinking about getting a R2R DAC
Will never forget the first time I heard an old version high $ Mark Levinson CD player and the old first version Audio Note DAC. Call it warmer or smoother or whatever, just sounded very "natural" to my ears years back. No grain or etch. Non-fatiguing. You’ll hear this from many R2R Ladder DAC owners. Simply musical, no oversampling, no overtones, no echo or reverberation sound, simply musical. IF you like it, it can become a must-have acquisition. Was off to see the wizard for and tried other DACS in between, kept eyes open for a reasonable R2R Ladder DAC. A decade later tried again to evolve and compared to a new Benchmark DAC3B, used in various applications professionally and home use. Sure, super nice quality, open, transparent, detailed, overly huge soundstage, yet something was just missing. Too perfect, maybe? Not as musical to my ears - even compared to my own MHDT Orchid with upgraded Mundorf caps and nice vintage Telsa tube. Sounded great in stock form, too upgraded caps just for grins, and the stock caps and stock GE 5670 Triple Mica tube supplied in the MHDT Orchid were just fine too. Plug it in, burn it in, and let it go for 90 days and keep listening for the tube/caps to settle in. Same with the Pagoda, a buddy has one in a pro studio for mastering and actually uses it there too, tubes and all! It’s all preference, whatever you like and what gels best with your system and speakers, for your ears. |
Thanks everyone for this discussion. It has been very informative! I've looked up many of the R2R DACs that you guys have suggested and there are so many interesting-looking choices. In the end, I had to choose something so I went with an MHDT Pagoda DAC. The MHDTs seemed to be calling to me and with my Buddhist tendencies, I had to go with the Pagoda. I listen to a fair amount of hi-res music on Qobuz so the Pagoda's 24bit capability sealed the deal. I'm excited to dip my toe into the R2R DAC world and see how it compares to my Chord Qutest as they are at similar price points. I ordered it today on the LTA website and I'll give an update when it arrives. Thanks again everyone! |
@adam8179 excellent choice... enjoy! juin and cohorts @ mhdt in taipei really know what the heck they are doing, and they have great ears... all their dacs have a luscious substantial yet lively sound -- plus if the tonal balance top to bottom doesn’t quite suit your system exactly they can be altered by rolling the tube - if you are buying it new from them be sure to let the tube and whole dac run in for a good month, it will keep improving in that time less zippy less hifi, but more listenable over long stretches than the qutest |
@adam8179 Congrats. Pagoda’s with the Burr Brown dual chipset is nice, XLRs if you need them, and same tube compliment. Save this link for later, may not need it but just in case for "burn in and tubes"...http://www.mhdtlab.com/tube.htm The stock tube works well, if you find it a tad bright (not always, some do), the Tesla is midway smooth, and the WE396 is even smoother yet was a tad too rolled off for my speakers but others love it in some cases with more forward speakers. A good cable from your player and XLR or SE cables back to the inputs on your helps too. Be sure to give it 40-80hrs burn-in for the tube, caps, to settle in and it opens up even more. Thumbs up! |
