Does a Tube Dac make sense?

 Bottom line you need a chip based DAC or a $5k R2R DAC. If you go with the Aries II you will be disappointed.

i don’t know exactly which person this comment is directed at, but all good intentions of this poster aside, i cannot fathom how such proclamations can be made without knowing the system and room the dac is going into, or what the tastes of the user are... good system building is all about compatibility and synergy with associated gear and listener preferences

The Jolida (Black Ice) tube dac is a real cracker for well under 1000 bucks. In fact just yesterday I was trying to find the txt messages between myself and the buyer of the one I sold to see if he if he would consider selling it back to me. Want to compare it with my current RME that I am also very happy with. 

My personal opinion having a DAC with only a tube based output is like having a preamplifier with the tone control set non-flat and no way to ever change it.  Tone controls are a great idea, and only stuffy audiophiles killed them, not because they were bad, but through their own hubris.  A tone control can help a recording sound the way you want to sound, help to tune a room a bit, or can set flat so it does nothing.


I am all for the option of the tube output on a DAC. I have no doubt for many people, on many recordings, that it will provide them with something that sounds better to them. However, just like tone controls, I doubt it would be ideal for all recordings, but if that is the only choice for output, you are stuck with it. 

@dletch2 .. how is it any different with a tube-free DAC? Every DAC has one signature sound unless it includes different filter options (tone controls). I've heard quite a few DACs over the years and each one sounds unique. Neutral? Free from distortion? No sound of it's own? Yeah, not so much. IMHO of course.

@melvinjones,
Precisely! 
There's no neutral audio device. If a tube is a so called "tone control" so is a transistor. Just different versions of distortion. The idea that solid state is the default neutral choice is not logical.  Listen to a half dozen solid state DACs and each is different sonically from another. Same outcome with tube DACs in the same scenario. 
Charles