From an MHDT to an Audio Mirror, quick impressions

@wlutke @decooney Thanks for the heads up. I’ve tube rolled the Orchid including 6922 family to some effect. Per my last post the biggest reason for moving on from the Orchid was predominant glare. How is your output cap mod in that area? It would be an absolute long time keeper for me (second system.) Love the musicality.

While its all "system & speaker dependent" and varies by individual and rooms of course...Three things I found with Orchid. Mine is very sensitive to input cables/types used. Results can vary greatly. Tried all, prefer high quality digi-coax with this dac. Using Analysis Plus Crystal or Cardas Digital. As for tubes, the Telsa 6CC42/2C51 was a great midway tube, smooth. My favorite in this dac, as I have an all tube system. May vary for those with SS preamps/amps. Tried two highly acclaimed (many like them) Western Electric 6CC42/2C51s, even smoother, a bit too much so for my taste in my system, speakers. Back to Tesla as my preference. Nice balance. Liked it so much may have a fully custom dac built next year, as tbd.

As for coupling cap upgrades in this dac, yes, it makes a rewarding difference. The stock MHDT caps are plenty good as-is for 95% of the people out there. I went with familiar top shelf Mundorf Silver Gold Oil caps in mine, and so did a few friends. Definitely picked up nice tone, texture, expanded sound stage. Rewarding results, yes. A long break-in and forming with these caps before they settle in, heads-up. Can be aggravating first 1-50hrs, better at 100hrs. Totally worth it once they form and settle. 

@decooney 

Thanks.  Cutting to the chase, do you think all things being equal (room, cabling, source, gear, music, listener) will the caps eliminate glare from the Orchid when glare is not apparent with the AM or with analog?  Would be a must have for me.

@wlutke would be so hard to advise on this not seeing or hearing your system. The factory caps are good too, and I did not experience glare with my Orchid in stock form before upgrading the tube and caps.

btw, Are your speakers toed in or faced perfectly straight forward? How big is the room?

The speakers and room sound fine with analog and the AM.  It’s the Orchid.  Sounds like your tube gear has a necessary synergy, 

@wlutke are you utilizing the exact same digital input and output cables on the AM dac as you did with your Orchid - in other words did one cable/type change by chance?

Also did you ever try the other Tesla -or- Western Electric optional/recommended tubes in your Orchid dac?

The reason for asking is friends across forums shared notes about MHDT Orchid and Pagoda DAC findings with particular cables and tubes to fine tune results even more. Of those half changed caps to get even more out of the dac.