dac chip vs analog stage as to sonic impact

hi alex, do you mean that a tube analog stage may not overcome the faults of a dac chip ?

Mrtennis, that is exactly correct. Masking inferior digital design and DACs with tubed analog stage sounds really bad indeed, IMHO.

At the same time, carefully designed digital with an appropriate DAC can do miracles with just a few Op Amps and all solid state output buffer.

Of course, the "real deal" (for me) is superior digital/DAC design combined with fast and transparent tube output stage.

Regards,
Alex

hi alex. it seems to me that the better dacs are not 24/192. i have yet to hear a cd player or a d/a converter with such a chip regardless of mods sound anything but digital and forced.

the old cal aria and the old cal tempest were ideal products.

By current standards the CAL products are very colored in their sound. Not unpleasant sounding, but not particularly accurate to the source material.

Mrtennis - I would agree as I prefer non-os dac designs. Coming from the perspective that I primarily focus on analog (vinyl) as my primary medium, non-os dacs have given me the satisfaction of a sonic signature more synonymous of the analog sound I prefer. The added bonus is I don't have to open my checkbook to achieve this sonic signature.