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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
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jjss49
6,612 posts
 
@barrista0611

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.


You are a 100% headphone listener? I am looking at your opening post. If so, my experiences are only partially applicable as I very rarely listen to HPs. So I value imaging (depth, height, width, specificity) greatly with my speakers, in conjunction with tonal balance and timbre on voices and real instruments. For HPs the considerations and weighting of SQ aspects may be rather different. Feel free to PM me. Several of the DACs I really like are actually for headphone listening (Ayre, Mojo, Amethyst) , but I use them for my regular stereo system. I also don’t want to get too specific about the negatives of the various units... people here get defensive and pissy when someone says what they may have and like didn’t work well for reasons a b and c...
barrista0611 OP
26 posts
 
@nekoaudio Thanks for the explanations. I just found those reviews on your website and will get through them!

@ghulamr The Metrum Onyx already is on my list. Hopefully I'll have a chance to try it out soon. Thank you! 
havoc
19 posts
 
Listen to the wyred for sound 10th anniversary dac,it's the warmest most analog sounding that I've ever had in my system and heard. I put it up against the Sim audio $15,000 dac and it left the Sim audio in the dust it was so much better in every area. Cost is $4,500 and I believe it'll go up against anything on the market.
relaks
63 posts
 
First and foremost, Qobuz stream SQ is just adequate, no more than that. I guess you have already bought some Qobuz music. If not, download a good hi res file from them. It should sound way better compared to the streamed one. If you don’t hear a significant difference, the digital part of your system could be seriously improved.
By definition no DAC can can sound like vinyl, but something like Border Patrol DAC would be a big step in the right direction. It has a rich organic sound. (I just checked: it’s on Black Friday Sale atm with 20% off). Next (in fact it should go first) - your laptop. Laptop will never sound as good as a dedicated server, full stop. Elasticity, density, palpability you have mentioned - it all will be improved with a good server, along with dynamics, freq. extremes and sheer blackness of the background. I am using Zen. 
barrista0611 OP
26 posts
 

Thanks relaks!

In the meantime I "accepted" that absolutely no dac will exactly sould like vinyl, not just due to the physical process of a needle touching an LP. So I guess I need to "refresh" my goal and would like to get as close as possible. For the moment I think a good NOS dac is the way to go for me. The Border Patrol definitely got my interest but I`m mainly looking at solid state dacs as my preamp uses tubes already and I spent quite a while with tube rolling.

Black Friday: good idea - hopefully Metrum will join in!

Laptop as a source sucks, I know. I am already heading out for a PI2AES.

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