Upgrade Nakamichi PA 7All power amp with mono blocks

decooney thriftyaudio OP PSA gives you 30 days in home trials- no questions asked. Even longer if you request. I’ve bought many products from them...

thriftaudio: They also take trade ins. They will discount up to ??% of the price of your purchase if you trade in that NAD! Sometimes more if you have a history with them or under certain circumstances.  For best results, don't buy online.  Call and speak to one of their sales reps.

I have the NAK PA-7A MKII with the CA-7A pre.  Both fully refurbished 2 years ago also.  

Fact is it's a tough combination to beat no matter what your budget is.

"Fact is it's a tough combination to beat no matter what your budget is."

Reading back over this. Another thought along the same lines of thinking...

Yep, levarage the existing amp as-is, keep it for a few more years, at least.   Having owned the BF 2/64 myself, its an ok DAC for the money - yet more to be gained with a 1 or 2 level up dac for sure if you are looking for more lush velvet and musical sound.  Some dacs are "overly precise", too analytical for me, or imo.  

A really good DAC, nice Digi Coax cable, nice output interconnects to the PA-7 II, and you'll hear the existing amp and Acoustats in a new way.  Demo 3-4 more dacs first.  Try this for a while, might be pleasantly surprised.  

Then, after this is set up well, IF the new-amp-itch is still there for a set of "monos", start demoing (buy/return/keep) and comparing decent monos to see who can dethrone the recently refreshed PA-7 II.  Would not be suprised if it holds its own.  

@decooney 

We seem to have similar taste.

I am picking up a used Benchmark LA4 preamp this weekend.  I leveraged the purchase to also pick up a pair of PS Audio M700 power amps used.  I suspect the LA4 will be my long-term preamp, but I will do some a/b testing with the NAD just to comfirm.  I have some interested parties in the NAD so it will be easy to sell.

I will also do some a/b testing with the M700s with both preamps just because the equipment will be here.  I expect I will leverage them into something else, but if I love them then I will leverage the Nak into something else.

My streamer/DAC journey was a mess.  I started out with a Cambridge CXN v2.  The sound was just OK and the app was not user friendly.  Never could get it to work consistently.  I returned it to the dealer and tried the Node N130.  The app was a little better and the sound was about the same.  I upgraded the N130 with a PD Creative SMPSU in a LPSU interface.  The sound improved dramatically.  Really loved it.  While this was happening I ordered an Eversolo DMP A6 based on all the great reviews.  By the time it arrived the upgraded Node was working great.  I was going to return it, but decided to go ahead and do an a/b test.  Turns out the streamer portion of the Eversolo worked better than than the Node.  Additionally, the app was amazing (still is).  The DAC portion was a bit shrilly, but it had very good stage and instrument separation relative to the Node.  I kept the DMP A6 and moved the Node to a secondary system.  The Node is still very good.

I listened to a friends Lumin D2 and liked it, but didn't love it.  The sound was great but the app was not as user friendly as the Eversolo.  It was also too expensive for me at the time.  My friend suggested the Bifrost 2/64.  He had one on his 2nd system and said the DAC was the equivalent of the D2.  I listened in his system and liked it so I ordered one.  I was prepared to return it if I was not blown away in my system.  I was.  It was a huge improvement over the DMP A6.  

So, what did you try in terms of DACs and where did you end up?  Did you try the Schiit Yggdrasil LIM or MIL?  Any suggestions for the future?  Did your try different streamers too?

@thriftyaudio I see so you’ve partly been down the dac merry-go-round. I ended up leveraging a bunch of friends and colleagues to narrow down my lists a bit more. You or others might prefer something different in terms of DACs, I was following along with folks at Schiit for while, and almost went down the Yggy path, yet had some insight to go a different way, and was trying to stay a way from a huge dac footprint, and a few I compared with that owned Yggy had downsized to BF 2/64. Dont get me wrong that dac has decent deail, separation, just not the velvet and musicality I was looking for. (note: I’ve had modded MHDT Labs tube tube dacs before as well). Note Schiit Yggy, probably a little smoother yes, yet maybe a different sound from BF 2/64. For streamers, nothing special, an older/updated Arcam unit I won’t let go of, and have compared it to a few different Bluesound Node units through friends. I was looking for a particular result, and a certain magic for my modded Pass/Forte SS amp and my upgraded Quicksilver Mono 120 tube amps. This eventually came about through my Border Patrol SE-I dac with the upgraded power supply, specific phillips TDA1543 chip, and Jupiter caps that come with SE-I version. Its the only dac I’ve never modified or needed to. The Tube is not in the signal path, which I like for my needs - its part of the power supply circuit and you can turn the tube on/off for different sounds too. Gary Dews built it for me and super happy pairing it with my particular pre/amp system setup. It responds well to different cables, and now my digital woes are over. Have not looked back since. Some people try it and rotate it too fast without letting it fully settle in. After 45 days of solid play time, it opened up more, and it bested my other dacs in a nice way. Let me say its a "preference" thing, and does what I want and need for my system.

I do believe so much of this is system/speaker dependent and finding a good match for your current and demo amps in the way of the right dac for you can be a game changer. It was for me. 👍