DAC contest: Border Patrol Sei or Chord Qutest?

@jetter @jjss49 +1000000

not sure what is being argued here...

@soix is a long time contributor, gives plenty of useful advice and is always careful to ask for enough info from those seeking advice before he gives it... to me, it is a ’best practice’ among those who frequent this site to share their views

as is being covered in another thread, it is useful when folks giving advice also share their experience level... the systems page can do that, or, for those who care to check, everyone’s past posts are right there to be seen with a few clicks

as usual, more transparency is better than less among users here, more experience is better than less in this pursuit, and on this forum where advice is sought and given both givers and recipients of advice or input should seek and provide clarity

I have the pleasure of owning 2 BP DAC’s (one of which is now in the hands of my daughter) as well as a Denafrips Terminator Plus. While my present go-to DAC is the Denafrips, I really do like the BP DAC and I often switch between the two. While vocals sound great on both, I lean towards the BP DAC for a slightly softer presentation with the Denafrips slightly sharper. I’ve never heard the Chord Qutest DAC so I can’t comment, however as many have said, those who have owned both have their listening experiences to share. Everyone’s listening experiences are different and getting a better understanding of the greater details and each person’s preferences can help in deciding which would be the better. Fortunately, I believe BP has a return policy if you should decide to get one to try. Like those who have purchased, play the BP DAC for about 100 hours so it has time to settle in. I believe you’ll be glad you did. Gary of BP is a terrific guy and is easy to work with. His products are well-made, sound great and are reliable.

re: BorderPatrol SE-I DAC / Input tubes on your tube preamplifier?

For those running tube preamplifiers and the BP SE-I DAC, I had still been running softer sounding input tubes in my preamplifier as a carry-over from running other types of transparent dacs prior to my BorderPatrol DAC SE-I acquisition.

Change:

Today, swapped in a few of my other more transparent sounding 6SN7 preamplifier input tubes just for grins. Things opened up nicely, more soundstage and layering is present. Plenty of detail, separation, and sound stage with the BP SE-I dac. It’s worth trying different tubes and cables with this dac to fine tune more. Glad I tried it, passing it along fwiw.