Tube or R-2R DAC for Tube System

Your best decision, in my opinion and experience, is stick with tubes to get the best of digital and analog.  I have an all-tube system (Octave MRE 220's with SBB) and an Octave Jubilee Pre). Admittedly, my server is all SS (Antipodes K50).

I bought the Lampizator Pacific DAC w/300B tubes.  It is the best audio purchase I have ever made. The Lampi Pacific produces an analog-like sound, which rivals the best turntable, tonearm, cartridge and phono-amp combination money can buy, but with noticeably more bandwidth in the audio spectrum  - so it ups the ante in terms of delivering unprecedented realism.

Wait for it!  Soon the sound of the skeptics and critics, who will pull out their rifles filled with homemade amo cast from the forges of their misery, envy and frustration.  Fire away my sadlizes!  I won't be able to hear you over the beautiful sound of my Pacific DAC.

You mentioned the Doge 7 tube dac. I have one with 6 nos 12ax7

West German Telefunkens and 2 GEC Marconi 12au7 power tubes

I stream hi-res with ifi Neo streamer to a Vincent Class A hybrid

amp to Forte IVs. The Fortes were a bit too sharp until I put

the Vincent in the mix replacing a Yamaha as2200. I also had

tried a SET amp but both the class A/B Yamaha and the Decware

SET emphasized certain frequencies that made the tweeter

horn too aggressive. The class A (for first 10 watts)

Vincent brought serious weight to the bottom end of the

Fortes and made everything gel and balanced them out nicely.

I spent alot on tubes though and recently bought a tube tester

where I found the majority of the cheap Chinese tubes

that came with dac tested bad and all but one of the NOS

tubes I purchased tested good after several years of use.

The Chinese tubes were only in a couple months so go figure.

Bottom line is I now have an amazing bottom end to match

the amazing midrange and highs. The Yamaha is a great

amp but I couldn’t quite get the same weight in the bottom

even with tone controls and the SET is more of a tube rolling

toy considering its just 2.3 watts per channel but very good

too in its own right. I’m curious aboout R2R dacs too but my streaming

already sounds as good as my vinyl with the Doge so

I can recommend it if you want to deal with tubes which 

can be fussy. I'll bet McIntosh SS with R2R is amazing.

 

Try both, or three, or four! I alternative based music genre, mood, low level listening vs LOUD, and whatever I’m looking for that, day, night, etc. Integrated tube amps, a 300b SET, a 300b driving 845s and a vintage SS Crown DC300A, a superstar performer in its day, and still.  Klipsch Horns, Focal Arias, early JMLabs, Vienna Acoustics and 4 way vintage Infinity’s for the Crown.
 

DACs include Pontus II fed by an IRIS DDC from a fan-less mini PC and ethernet wired Qobuz. My best sounding combo, detail, expansive soundstage depth, holographic presentation, the Klipsch disappear. A Topping D90LE, one of the highest measuring SS chip DACs ever.  Detail, detail, ,detail, but not harsh or fatiguing. Not as expansive soundstage as the R2R, perhaps more pinpoint id of instruments and vocals. Definition of transparent.
 

Next up is a quad Cirrus chip Topping.  Paired with the Crown and Infinity’s is a warm, tight, big sound.  Even my older CXN V2 with its fixed upsampling and ancient, by today’s standards, burr brown chips sound very musical paired with the 300b amp and slightly less resolving JMLabs and Vienna Acoustics speakers.  

Next up on order is a Musical Paradise MP-DX with ess chips and tubes in the analog output stage. It’ll go up against the Pontus II and my reference 300b/845 amp. Curious how that will  compare, will let y’all know. (It was either that or a new Browning skeet shotgun. The DAC is 1/3 the cost! But I’ll probably end up with both before all said and done.)