Anyone know how good MHDT Labs Paradisea DAC is?

Different tubes in the Paradisea can have a major effect on the bass levels.

I've found the Tung Sol NOS 5730 equivalent tube delivers a significantly fuller and more robust low end than the stock GE 5730 that the Paradisea comes with. The GE 5730 has more sparkle and resolution to the high end however.

There are other tubes that might be tried as well. Do a google search on Paradisea tubes for info on how various people hear various tubes in the Paradisea.

My Paradisea runs into an ARC sp16 preamp. Not sure of the impedance #s here but I do not find bass levels or definition to be an issue with this particular combo.

I upgraded the power cable ($60 used), digital cable ($70 used), and tube (Western Electric 396A $25).
To my ear, the tube upgrade brought more positive sound than the two cables combined. Now, it is not hard to notice that mhdt with my Marantz DR700 CD player sounds better than the CD player alone.

Tvad,

It's really great to have true audiophiles, that will also share their knowledge without charge. That's just one of the many major parts of this hobby I also enjoy, the love of our hobby to no end. Keep up the good work, more people than you know are reading ...........

Hi, You guys all seam pretty fluent in equipment! I'm not there yet!! Looking for some comments...

I stumbled on the MHDT Havana and Paradidea as I'm looking for a DAC to go between a common CD player and my Mcintosh C11 preamp (I have a original MC275 after that). I can't seam to figure out what the difference between the 2 models is (I contacted him thru ebay) but, I see a lot of people had problem matching it to their premap's. Anyone have a clue if it will match well with my C11 preamp?

I went to 2 dealers in New York and I liked the sound of the primaluna prologue 8 versus a Naim player (I only heard 2 for now) so I think I want to get a Tube Dac to try and recreate that sound. Unfortunately we do not have patience for a 1 disc cd player in our house so we want to stay with a mediocre 6 disc changer + get a great Dac to make up for it's deficiencies.

I'm sure you guys have millions of suggestions, if you have any for me, let me know!
Thanks