2. digital
  3. 161488-147734

Looking for a vinylesk sounding DAC

I cannot say I wasn’t satisfied with my system.

Laptop (Quobuz Studio) - > Schiit Bifrost 2 - > Ocellia Reference RCA - > Werner Acoustics, Selene (active tube preamp using two VT-231 from RCA) - > passive preamp - > Ocellia Reference RCA - > First Watt F6 dual mono custom built - > HEDD Audio’s "Heddphone" / Hifiman HE 4

From the beginning I started to built it I had a quite concrete idea of what it should sound like in the end: vinylesk without using vinyl. It took me a while to get there and now I really thought I got it: Due to the F6 the outcome is brutally powerful and incredibly fast while the tube stage adds lots of body, depth and a rich organic undertone. Finally the RCA’s from Ocellia were adding the fine raffinement and a nice holographic soundstage. Nothing smears, in just every situation everything stays transparent, well controlled/articulated and the separation is just excellent.

BUT when listening to streamed vinyl I still feel the need for action - I just want EVERY track from quobuz to sound like this. Please take just some seconds and listen to this:

https://musicandvinyl.blogspot.com/2020/08/haruomi-hosono-from-aegean-sea.html?m=1

There is just MORE elasticity, MORE tonal density, MORE plankton, MORE concentration to the point, MORE light-footedness and MORE palpability (compared to a "disdainful" quobuz stream). Do you know what I mean?

I still think and hope a new dac could be the nirvana-solution. But which one would manage the job to sound just like vinyl (99% would be ok...)?

Happy to hear your suggestions!
barrista0611
mahler123
3,396 posts
 
Vinyl sounding?  Take the DAC of the month, record yourself eating Rice Krispies, fry an egg in the background, and you are done.

if you love the sound of vinyl so much, why are you wasting your time here?  Why not, you know, just sit and listen to some petroleum slabs spun on a platter that you hope plays at a stable speed with a sewing needle slashing the grooves to transmit some vibrations and call it a day?  If you truly believe vinyl is so superior why are you trying make digital sound like vinyl?  Do you also go to Burger King and expect to get Filet Mignon?
  I’ll take the increased dynamic range and drop dead quiet backgrounds of digital.  God forbid I get a DAC that generates the illusion that I am hearing what I gladly abounded 35 years ago
antigrunge2
1,440 posts
 
Analogue sound from a dac requires superior clocking. Whatever you do, get a dac with a 10m BNC clock input. The cheapest 10m clocks can be had on Alibaba for $100. Seriously, it‘s the single most important factor in choosing a dac.
lowrider57's avatar
lowrider57
5,417 posts
 
No, what you think you hear is "natural". It is not, no more than vinyl sounds "natural", no more the analog tape is "natural". They are not natural, they are colored. You just happen to like that coloration and associate that with natural.

Maybe there will come a time when most "audiophiles" will accept that what they like, and hence what they attribute as "natural" and accurate is anything but, at least if they put vinyl or tape on a pinnacle. It is not the pinnacle of accurate sound reproduction. Digital is. Very few audiophiles have heard the difference between a live microphone, a digital loop and a tape loop, let alone the eventual vinyl cut. And that is completely okay. It does not matter if you prefer the vinyl cut. All that matters is you like what you are listening to. However, describing it as natural is wrong because it is not.

All home audio systems are coloured in some way, whether it be from cables, component design, op amps, transformers, etc. You can stay in the digital domain but eventually the sound will be played through the speakers which have their own sonic signature, not to mention the room's influence.
The goal of most audiophiles is to reproduce music as close as possible to the original recording and the intent of engineer and producer.
And "air" is a desired element in music recording and playback; eg, classical, jazz, choral.

falke
4 posts
 
You  need a NOS R2R dac to achieve the vinyl like effect in all the positive ways .
I have personal experience of this . My new Sonnet DAC is less vinyl like than my Metrum Hex - which is for sale on this site - Only this type of dac comes up to the standard you are looking for. The Sonnet has different type of clarity possibly because of its volume control. 
barrista0611 OP
26 posts
 
All those suggestions are great people, thank you!! 

I already own an R2R DAC, so now I'll be looking at

- NOS R2R 
- Reconstruction filter
- superior clocking

As my budget is around 2,5k I will definitely have an eye on the Lapizator TDA1541 NOS, Tubadour MK III SE, Audio Note 2.1 and the new Soekris DAC 2541.

Still open to other options of course! 



More to discover