Audio Note DAC Owners- please share your thoughts

Audio Note, Spectral, Totem, PMC and others march to a different drummer.

One look at the websites will clue you in. Different and proud of it.

KGFY if you bother us. Of course I could be reading too much into this. 

Audio Note rooms at shows I have visited twice. The first time I was non-plussed.

The 2022 Axpona Room was setup by someone who knew what they were doing.

All Audio Note gear I believe. 

I have been using an ANK 4.1x DAC for about 6 months. It is sold as a kit

or assembled +$500. All in $3,500. 

I have a friend with the same DAC. His system did some special things.

ANK does not do above 96k, not for SACD or DSD, no I2.

The 4.1x uses an AD1865 chip. Been around.

@jeffseight-

I’m curious to hear which DAC were you using prior to moving onto the ANK 4.1x and what improvements it provided within your system. You mention a friend’s system doing some “special things”- does that DAC have upgraded components or was it more about how it played within the combination of gear?

Designer,

What part of the world are you in? By mentioning that someone with your product of interest may offer an audition.

I am in Phoenix, BTW.

I had a Pontus 2 immediately prior to the ANK.

RE the system I was listening to: There is really no way to attribute the

amazing sound at his home to a specific piece of gear. It seems you would

likely spend $5-7k for a better DAC. 

Hey designer I've been using a Dac-3 Signature for about 6 years not currently using it as it's in the shop awaiting a donor transformer after a bridge rectifier lost it's life. As the Dac was built in 1995 that's 26 years of trouble free service to that point.

The sound is rich, and organic and musical without sounding overly warmed up. It makes Redbook sound as good as it could possibly be and no brightness or digital nasties. AN Dacs are really meant to reproduce Redbook digital they're not about hi rez, my Dac maxes out at 16/48 but that's just fine for me there's an entire universe of music out there that's 44.1.

My prior Dac was a Yamamoto YDA-1 and it's in fact also my current Dac I bought it back from the person I sold it to 6 years ago. Though the design is SS there are some similarities both makers eschew a digital filter, the Yamamoto has no filter at all. The sound therefore has similarities in terms of naturalness and also vividness and rich instrumental color. The AN Dac seemed to have a longer slower decay of notes and is just a touch more laid back.

I look forward to getting my AN Dac  at some point it is certainly missed!

@jond-

Hey there- it sounds as if no progress has been made on your DAC since relaying this to me a few weeks ago (I had sent you a pm regarding Audio Note). Hope your able to get it back up and running soon!