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Adding tube sound to my SS system

I have a question for the hive mind. I had the opportunity try a PS Audio BHK tube preamp in my system the other day (in between my LUMIN T2 and Luxman 509x bypassing the luxman preamp) and the vocals / midrange made my heart flutter and chills run up my spine. I heard life detail and nuance in the vocals that I didn’t with the Luxman preamp and sounded like the singer was in the room. But, it was lacking in soundstage, bass and so so recordings didn’t shine. The Luxman preamp made everything sound smoother and liquid but at the expense of some life in the midrange. I ultimately liked the sound without the BHK preamp better, But, that tube sound is intriguing and I’m looking for a way to add it into my system.

system is LUMIN T2->Luxman l509x->spendor D9.2

I keep the Luxman loudness on all the time. Maybe that says I like a fuller sound. i stream 99% of the time through Roon or airplay (tidal and my wife uses Spotify). The modern convenience of controlling volume from the phone is essential (this the LUMIN). Home theater runs through the HT bypass on the luxman. All kinds of music jazz, folk, rock, hip hop etc. simplicity has value over going fully separates. I’ve been trying to research streaming dacs that have a tube or streaming tube preamps but not really having any luck finding anything that fits the bill. Looking to upgrade the LUMIN as I love the aesthetic of the Luxman so it would be hard to part with but I’d do it if needed. Wondering if streamer to tube preamp to power amp is the only way to make it work. Budget is not too much more than my current gear and willing to buy used.

128x128trentgordon
mulveling's avatar
mulveling
1,959 posts
 

Personally, I didn’t find the Yggdrasil to bring me anywhere near to what I expect from "tube sound". It was a very good DAC to be sure, but still rather SS sounding. The Meridian DACs (566, 808 series) are not even R2R and get me closer to the sound I wanted than Yggy did - but DAC rolling in general is no substitute for a tube component downstream, if that’s what one craves IMO. I used Yggy most with tube amps, and liked it better that way than paired to SS amps.

For context - I had the OG Yggy Analog 1 and later the Analog 2. Haven’t heard the recent ones. The USB implementations back then (USB 3 and then USB 5) sounded awful to me (bright, lean, fatiguing) - had to feed it coax to be happy.

OP could look at tube DACs, but they’re simply a DAC box with a tube output buffer built in. Modwright’s bridge will be much higher quality and more flexible.

koestner
675 posts
 

How is the Yiggy an R2R DAC? It uses a DAC chip. Unless I am missing the meaning of an R2R.

mulveling's avatar
mulveling
1,959 posts
 

How is the Yiggy an R2R DAC? It uses a DAC chip. Unless I am missing the meaning of an R2R.

A chip is just a package. It doesn’t disqualify R2R / ladder conversion. The Yggy (OG versions, at least) were an R2R DAC based on a chip that was (IIRC) manufactured for medical devices, and re-purposed by Schiit’s digital engineer. BurrBrown made an R2R chip that was popular for a long time - the 1704.

Now if you restricted your query to discrete R2R, then chips would be disqualified :) 

emergingsoul
1,210 posts
 

Tube insertion along the Signal path influences mid and upper range frequencies very favorably due to increased harmonic influences. Solid state amplification is best for lower frequencies. So rather than go back-and-forth along the teeter totter of audio frustration I decided to biamplify using a tube amp for the upper ranges and a solid-state amp for the lower freqs, all with plenty of power.

Now I don’t struggle with being critical about what I’m hearing from my system. My concerns now Focus on the quality of the actual recording and there’s no way to resolve these types of problems. And of course dealing with potential speaker changes which are a pain in the neck.

And if everything fails I’ll buy a puppy.

 

 

koestner
675 posts
 

@mulveling  Thanks for the clarification. I appreciate your response, as I was not aware there were chip based R2R', but it does make sense to me now.

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