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Opinion on audio note kit dac 5.1 or 4.1

Hi Guys

Happened to chance upon a audio note kits dac, and their dac 4.1 and 5.1 looks really interesting!
Have never heard them in person before, but their specifications look pretty good!
Have any of you heard them before, and what kind of sound characteristics do they impart? (in terms of sound stage, musicality/sweetness, smoothness, warmth/brightness etc)
What system do you play them in and how would you compare them with other dacs you have owned?

Thanks!
thegreenman
jjss49's avatar
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jjss49
6,612 posts
 
they sound very good... relaxed warm sound with detail presented in a gentle natural way
roxy54's avatar
roxy54
7,964 posts
 
I have had the 2.1 for years after quite a few others and I still love it. Very non digital, but as jjss49 says, great detail and all of the other good stuff.
thegreenman OP
44 posts
 
Hi Jjss and roxy,

Thanks for your input!

How do they compare to other dacs? Esp tube dacs or audio note dacs?

Thanks! :)
clio09
3,354 posts
 
I built the 4.1x recently and it displaced my Lessloss DAC 2000 MkII in my system. The Lessloss was in my system for 13 years, so to me it was an excellent DAC using one of the best DAC chips ever and implementing it well in the circuit.

The 4.1x just adds more of what the Lessloss gave me. I don't listen to hi-res very much (maybe some 24/96 files) so 16/44.1 works fine for me. I find the 4.1x to be very smooth and natural sounding. It is extremely quiet as well for a tube DAC. I think what makes the unit special is not so much the DAC chip, but the use of transformers for the I/V conversion and the transformer coupled output. So no opamps and no capacitor coupled output.
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