2. digital
  3. 1291180077

I have three digital sources

I have a 4 year old Audio Note dac 2.1. I used to think it was a pretty solid piece of gear. Problem was when I bought a Cambridge Audio dacmagic to mostly stream mlb baseball games from my pc. Trouble started brewing when I hooked the dac magic to my Accustic Arts transport and it was every bit as solid a performer or even better than the Audio Note dac.

Then indignities on top of indignity I bought an Oppo 83se as a blueray player and to play sacd, and it clearly is in a different league (as in better) than my Audio Note dac and dacmagic on anything it plays. I run two systems - one computer based and one with the oppo as source. The Audio Note is the odd piece out but have been thinking should I upgrade to 3.1 (I run Audio Note HE speakers that I love in my main system), should I sell up and think about a newer technology dac that will mate with my transport or computer better, or even wondering if I just need to roll some new tubes into the 2.1 (I still have all original tubes). Just looking for a little discussion about where to take my digital sources.
ladavid
ladavid OP
79 posts
 
Okay - pretty embarrassed to write about this one. Had a new set of 6922's around so opened up the dac this morning to replace my older pair and found I had a set of herbie's (I love your products most of the time) tube dampers on the 6922's. Popped in the new tubes, left the dampers off and bingo dynamics, detail, and tone galore. Will let the new tubes burn in a bit but right out of the box a big improvement - don't think it was the tubes, more likely the dampers just weren't the right thing for my dac - like the cotton is out of ears! Paul thanks for all your good feedback - think problem is solved.

David
nilthepill
842 posts
 
I too had found the (I think they are herbies) dampers to damp the sound too much- making it unnatural. On different tube equipment though. Just to confirm, that IME, dampers do more harm than good- if you did not need dampers to begin with.
paulfolbrecht
603 posts
 
Please let us know at some point if it was the dampers or the tubes!

(I'm curious about a design that would seem to rely on undamped tube resonance for positive qualities...)
ladavid OP
79 posts
 
I knew this was the problem right away - has been a couple of years at least since I opened up the dac and timing is perfect for me being generally unhappy with it. Happened to me before with an amp where the dampers did just that - yes they got rid of the micro-phonics but they also damped the life out of the amp. Going to let the new tubes break in a bit but will do some comparisons with both new and old tubes next weekend. I have the dac in my second system right now with accuphase amp and Ellis Audio speakers and sound is now full figured and quiet compared to the dacmagic.
cruz123
586 posts
 
don't think it was the tubes, more likely the dampers just weren't the right thing for my dac

More likely the tubes. I have herbies dampers on all my tubes, but have experimented with and without them and, frankly, have noticed no discernable difference unless a tube is truly microphonic (e.g. it rings or pops when I tap on it while playing music), in which case a damper seems to help. Personnally, I have never experienced a situation where a damper actually "damped" the tone or performance of an otherwise good tube. On the other hand, individual and pairs/sets of tubes certainly can vary tremendously in performance, so the replacement of the tubes seems the most likely explanation for the improvement. IMHO. In any event, glad you were able to resolve the problem. AN DAC's are very good and are certainly sexier in a high end system than Oppo or DAC Magic :)
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