Some DACs I am Considering-Any thoughts?


Soekris 2541                $1.1

Doge 7                         $1.2

Mhdt Pagoda               $1.4

Denafrips Pontus         $1.8

Audio Mirror SE           $2.5

Holo Audio Spring 2    $2.7

Audio Note 4.1 Kit       $3.6

Lampizator Amber 3    $3.8

Anyone who can speak from experience  about comparisons
between any two these?

I like the use of a tube and I like the R2R style of build.

Prefer to stay under $2.5 but might be swayed.

Thanks in advance for sharing.

(Some of these prices are certainly not correct)
chorus
Hey I'm wondering if anyone has experience with DACs from Border Patrol?  
The name is sketchy I know but I have a friend who has one and swears by it.  I know it's R2R but not sure if there are tube variants.

NUJonathan
@phill55 I have the same AMT3SE as you on order. Can you tell me long it took for the unit to fully break-in?

Couple A/Bs from yesterday:


Yesterday we tried some a/b comparisons between your dac Audio Mirror Tubadour and 2005 vintage dCs CD player P8i model. $14k new.
Another friend brought the PS Audio Direct Stream DAC. $5k new.
As you may know they both are software based DACs.
Although volume matching was not perfect I found I preferred yours to the PS Audio model.The owner of the PS model felt his had some strengths over the AM. The openness and presenceof the AM was in my mind the big difference.
The dCs comparison was a bit harder to judge. The owner liked his dCs better. I found it a very closecomparison and could not make a definite judgement. With his we were able to volume match more closely.
Our Arizona Audio/Video Club has a Van Alstine Comparator unit which I may use next time if another DAC comparison is to be done.



my input to several recent posts below:

a) yes frank van alstine's abx comparator is quite a truth teller... excellent piece that serves its purpose spot on... like all of what frank makes

b) in my listening tests in my own system, the audio mirror, mhdt and even denafrips dacs sounded more natural, open and dimensional than the border patrol (not that the bp is not good, the others were somewhat better to my ears)

c) point b above being said, the differences are quite subtle and only upon direct comparison can one discern and be confident about the difference - that is another benefit of the ava abx unit - you can a/b knowing what's what, then you also a/b without knowing test yourself if you can reliably and consistent hear what you think you hear among two items
regarding AM Tubadour break-in. 30 days to start really smoothing out and three months for those big duelund caps to become liquid sounding. an exercise in patience.