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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
barrista0611 OP
26 posts
 
@invalid @nekoaudio

To be honest I have never tried (or even seen) a transformer output dac like the Neko Audio D100 Mk2. What exactly could I expect?

I’m using a passive pre between my (active) tube preamp and the power amp and always thought about exchanging this for an AVC or a TVC.

And also, I never had a tube dac as I bought my tube preamp first and then starting to get into looking for a new dac. I spent a lot of time in finding the right tubes and would say I’m satisfied insofar. For this reason I still would prefer a solid state nos dac.

At the moment I’m mostly looking out for

- Metrum Onyx/Jade
- Holo Spring 2/L2
- Audial S4
- Mojo Mystique v2X
- (Yamamoto YDA 01) 

Happy to hear opinions about those units. Still open to other options of course.

jjss49's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
jjss49
6,612 posts
 
@barrista0611

i won’t say which is my favorite, it so depends on rest of system and synergies desired - but here is what i have kept vs gone (have 3 systems across couple homes so lots of duplicate gear)

kept:

audiomirror tubador 3 se
sonnet morpheus
metrum jade and amethyst
mhdt orchid stockholm paradisea istanbul w mods
chord m scaler and hugo tt2 mojo
van alstine fet topp/hybrid dac
jolida black ice glass fx (upgraded)
dena pontus
auris d1d
ayre codex

sold:

chord 2qute qutest
neko d100-2
schiit bifrost mb gumby yggy
border patrol se-i
psa directstream
topping d90
rme adi 2
dena ares 2, term
metrum octave
mytek brooklyn
benchmark dac2
w4s dac 2-2
smsl vmv d1

many of the dacs sold are good, just didn't work for me tonally, or didn’t seem better to me than less expensive ’relatives’ or alternatives for a similar sound signature

a few others out there i will try over time, like a holo, a lampizator... not in a hurry, as the ones i have all clear the bar for being very listenable with the tonality and resolution i seek to enjoy streaming and files served

barrista0611 OP
26 posts
 
@jjss49 That’s - even for 3 systems - an impressive list (with some candidates I’m interested in), thanks a lot for your effort! Out of those you have kept: which one do you think could match best in my case, if you take as a basis that I prefer really rich, organic and thick textures in the mids and an overall fine articulation with a tactile and palpable grip of the bass while I don’t care for the absolute last resolution in the treble region? It's not that I don't like an extensive resolution in the treble too as I see how much this is related to a holographic soundstage but I'm a bit sensitive in that region. 

Sure this is system dependent but I guess every dac got it’s own fundamental character that it brings with.
nekoaudio's avatar
nekoaudio
489 posts
 
@barrista0611 well, a caveat with the D100 Mk2 and some other DACs with transformer-based analog output stages is that they will have a higher output impedance. So matching one with a passive preamp may be less than ideal if the preamp input impedance is too low or if there is a lot of fluctuation in the input impedance by frequency. Some passive preamps have changing input impedance by volume, while others do not.

But primarily a transformer-based output adds some warmth (i.e. distortion), usually to a slightly greater degree in the lower frequencies versus the mid-range or treble, without the negatives commonly associated with a NOS design like rolled-off treble or aliasing artifacts or the higher distortion associated with a tube design.

There’s decent set of measurements posted for the D100 Mk2 on the Neko Audio website, and many reviews can be found online.

Lumin and Linn also use output transformers in the analog output stage of their higher-end models.
ghulamr's avatar
ghulamr
104 posts
 
some good recommendations already. May I add - Metrum Acoustics NOS R2R DAC's. I have both the Onyx and the Adagio. Fantastic sound - cannot ask for more. Driving my Harbeth using hybrid Croft amps. Sweet combination. 
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