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"Aries Cerat Helene dac is very impressive in pictures and design!"

Yes it is, and even more impressive to lift when in its wooden crate!  The thing is so darn big, I considered putting it on its own Sound Anchors amplifier stand since I have one I am not using.

I have had several pretty good DACs here that have all been close to the sound I am looking for, and a couple of them I would be happy to live with but, with all of them so far I have ended up thinking, "if only they did this differently/better..." 

Maybe the Helene will be the one, but maybe not.  I just started playing music through it today and these things take time.  I have found that even matching the various cables I have here with the specific DACs is important to optimize for the best sound.  I will give it a few days and try some of the test tracks I used for my DAC comparison.  Too bad I can’t have the Galle, MSB Premire, Totaldac Unity, and Benjamin’s not yet released Mystique Z here all at the same time but, unfortunately, it just doesn’t work that way.

I look forward to hearing your comments.  Yes, that dac is a monster of a build! 

For those of you counting your farads, it was discussed earlier in this thread the shocking values of capacitance the Galle II converter uses, at 2 thousand farad, or 2,000,000,000 uF. 

I can’t see the number for the Helene, but the Kassandra has "just" 2 farad, or 2,000,000 uF.

I just happen to be reading this older review: This is what Terry London stated about the Linear Tube Audio Aero DAC in his review late last year:

"There is over 300,000uF of storage capacitance in the power supply. More than many amplifiers!"

Let us know @mitch2 if you fiddle with the bias- quite a unique option. 

@mclinnguy - Already been fiddling. Dealer suggests trying it turned way up and then down (within the recommended limits) in order to understand the changes possible before zeroing in on a preferred value.

since this thread is about Galle, I look forward to reading more about that DAC here, as new customers buy them, and reading the reviews as they are published.