My main system is a tube system, tube amps, tube pre-amps, etc. I am in a choice of a new tube or R-2R ladder DAC. I have no doubt about a tube DAC, but I also have heard a lot of good things about the R-2R ladder DACs. May any of you share your opinions?
Solid-state IC DACs verboten? I feed the output from one into an integrated tube amplifier. Maybe that is how the system produces a well-defined and musical sound.
I've had very good results with a very rare DAC, a GeorgeMark Audio from the early 2100s. It's a tube gain stage with volume control and an MSB DAC board built in with tube output stage. I drive it with Cambridge CDX drive running into two Monarchy anti jitter stages in series.
Previous to this I used a Melos preamp with built in DAC and a tube output. Again excellent performance. Tubes seem to make good DAC output stages.
I use a Denifrips Ares ii with Vincent Audio Hybrid Pre / Power amps a really nice pairing. I have tried several tube amps but miss the really low bass I personally enjoy.
@idolindian It would be helpful if you had a DAC and listed what you don’t like about it and what direction you want to go, otherwise we are just guessing on your preferences. Without context, all we can do is suggest DACs that we like rather meeting your preferences.
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