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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
 

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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cleeds
5,983 posts
 
relaks
... Qobuz stream SQ is just adequate, no more than that.
Really? What streaming service do you think offers better SQ?
... download a good hi res file from them. It should sound way better compared to the streamed one ...
Why? Aren't the two files identical?
relaks
63 posts
 
Really? What streaming service do you think offers better SQ?Why? Aren't the two files identical?
1. I don't think there is a service with much better sound quality, that's why I am using Qobuz as well. Some say Tidal SQ is marginally better. I can't vouch for that. But I never meant Qobuz particularly sucked. Any stream is worse than a dedicated server. 
2. Files are identical, but the way they are delivered are different. Streaming is always susceptible to network lag, latency, interferences, and mains noise. Have you noticed how much effort top servers manufacturers put into their dual, sometimes triple power supplies, into vibration control? Now look at your router.
jjss49's avatar
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jjss49
6,612 posts
 
to me both tidal and quboz (top levels of each) sound very good, but they do sound different

this has been discussed in other threads

quboz a little more solid more grounded less airy, tidal a little more processed phasey - noticeable on a/b back to back other elements controlled
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cleeds
5,983 posts
 
relaks
... Any stream is worse than a dedicated server ... Streaming is always susceptible to network lag, latency, interferences, and mains noise.
It sounds like you have some pretty serious ISP and/or network issues. Most of them should be resolvable. You may want to consider using a caching streamer, such as Aurender. That might cure some of your streaming issues.
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