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DAC finalist please help

Hi all,
hope everyone is doing well this holiday season.
I’m back on the DAC hunt and I have narrowed down to these different but compelling DAC’s.
Unlike a lot of you guys on Audiogon I’m not a millionaire : (  My budget is only 1,500 bucks but I think there are some good choices in that range.
If any of you folks have experience with any of these pieces I would greatly appreciate your thoughts.

I’m replacing a McCormack DAC-1 that I have owned since new.
I still listen and continue to buy Redbook CD’s so something that would be kind to those is important.
I’m trying to make the determination on overall what would work and sound the best.
NOS with tubes is intriguing as is R2R as is just a good chip set.
I’m looking at a Aragon D2A used $600 for redbook playback and maybe teaming it up with a Xiangsheng 05B to handle modern formats DSD etc, less than 500 bucks the two together would be just north of a grand.
On the NOS front the Audio Mirror Tubadour III NOS w/tubes, new $1,500.

The Denafrips Ares II R2R used about 800 bucks, or the Musician - Pegasus, new around $1,100.
And then there is the Line Magnetic 502CA tube, used 700-800 dollars.
I love the look of the LM and it's got a great tube stage, I definitely have a bit of a crush on this one.

I realize I’m a little bit all over the Map here, but again if anyone has thoughts or has /had one of these DAC’s I’m all ears...Many thanks and Happy Holidays!HG
grossman616
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jjss49
6,612 posts
 
i mentioned the mhdt’s and codex due to the op’s stated budget

the top audio mirror tubador (3se i think is the designation) is $2500 it is ever so slightly more refined/detailed than the mhdt orchard/istanbul/stockholm but the presentation is very very similar - certainly not 2.5x better, maybe 3-5% better on a good day

the am is one of the pricier dacs i have kept, along with the sonnet morpheus, so i am not knocking vlad’s dac at all

finally i shd also add metrum dacs as another wonderful r2r candidate - a touch warmer and smoother than the denafrips with no loss of detail presentation - just tremendous sound for the money in their lower models, and absolutely top decile sound for their higher ones (jade, adagio, pavane) of which the sonnet is a close relative...
grossman616 OP
130 posts
 
Thank you one and all!
Nice to hear from real people who have the gear I'm looking at.

The MHDT is something that caught my eye too but didn't know much about. There is one on US Audiomart's  site I think so thank you for your suggestion. I will look into the other choices as well.I appreciate the comment about the Ares II.

I have been talking to Mr Bazelkov, at Audio Mirror about changing to 9 pin tubes because I need higher output, passive pre-amp -Maggie's you get the idea.Although it's at the high end of the range new is nice as is dealing with the owner, American made etc. NOS is very interesting to me. I'm a minimalist at heart, and grew up with a vintage Scott tube set up.

As always, good advice found here!
So again, many thanks one and all.
Happy and Safe Holidays!!!HG
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jjss49
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@grossman616

you can remove the mini tube tube adapter to run 6922 tubes in the tubador - this doubles your gain at the dac output... you can then tube roll and that is fun and good to manage tonality to your preference

Tubes used in the DAC are 5977 subminiature tubes. They are mounted on a special tube adaptor, which is plugged into a regular 9 pin tube socket. You can just unplug the adaptor and use regular 9pin tubes, which can be any of the following tubes: 6N1P, 6DJ8, ECC88, 6922 and 6H23P. After experimenting with many tubes we found that 5977 is the best sounding tube for this application. Second best sounding tube is 6N1P. After all it’s a matter of taste. All the 9pin tubes mentioned above have almost twice the gain of 5977, therefore you will have twice higher output level from the DAC - around 2V. Expected tube life for 5977 subminiature tubes is  >5000 hrs.

good luck
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pastorbob
78 posts
 
Hi,
I heartily second the AM T III
@cal3713's post is spot on.
I have the base model. Paid under 1500.00 from Vlad.
He is a pleasure to deal with.
There is always the option to upgrade to the SE, but at this point I'm extremely happy with the base.
Good luck.

Kind regards,
PB
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morningstaraudio
154 posts
 
Soekris 1541 sounds superb.
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