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Former MHDT Havana Lovers: What did you move onto?

I have owned and loved this DAC for the past year, but speaker and amp upgrades along with moving to a bigger room have started to flesh out it's weaknesses, namely lack of fine inner details and congestion with complex passages, particularly orchestral. What can give me the same kind of lovely organic timbre with more clarity and detail and perhaps deeper soundstage? I just picked up the Bel Canto DAC2.5 and while definitely more detailed, it just doesn't have that natural and organic sound and is ultimately a little too clinical and fatiguing to my ears (Benchmark wo uld probably make my head explode).

Yes, I have rolled NOS tubes - Bendix 2c51, WE396A/2c51, Tungsol 2c51, but that can only do so much. I do have V-Cap OIMP caps that I'm going have installed so that should help, but to what degree remains to be seen.

I am considering trying the Bryston BDA-1 and Ayre QB-9. Tranquility SE looks interesting but relatively high output impedance and not particularly high voltage will probably not work too well with my Placette Passive Linestage. Suggestions under $2k used or new appreciated.

Thanks!
eugene81
douglas_schroeder
3,281 posts
 
Feel free to read what I say about the Minimax DAC Plus in my Audio Blast article at Dagogo.com. I make some extreme statements about it, but I believe the product supports them.

Tubegroover is not exaggerating, and neither do I in my article. :)
eugene81 OP
270 posts
 
OK, just got a response from the US dealer of the Calyx 24/192 who has it in stock, albeit in black while I slightly prefer silver. About to pull the trigger, but have questions about return policy and warranty service. I'm so ADD.

I hope returns are offered, at least with a restocking fee. I get the feeling I won't need to exercise such options, but I would imagine resale value is pretty poor with a brand like Calyx, however hot the item is in some circles.
jult52
155 posts
 
Doug - Went over to dagogo and read your rave which is very interesting. For you passive users, the MiniMax has a tubed output impedance of 3k ohms (too high) but solid state impedance of 200 ohms, which is perfect. Output vootage is 2.5v in both stages.

Doug - Could you comment on how you'd compare the Eastern Electric to other good NOS DACs (Mdht, Audio Note, Nixon) and how would you compare the tubed & solid state outputs from this DAC?
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,399 posts
 
Jult,

Good point!

Without having much information on specific DAC specs, I would suspect higher output impedance of tubed versus SS DACS in general is a key factor in determining best general application of each similar to output from tube versus SS pre-amps. I would expect a correlation in general between lower DAC output impedance and resulting better dynamics, better detail, and lower distortion levels all other things aside. Whether the system as a whole sounds better or not as a result is harder to predict because so many other factors come into play.

tubegroover
2,320 posts
 
Eugene sorry I missed the requirement concerning the output impedance. Yes, it is as Jult notes 3K for the tube side which would certainly not be a match for your passive pre, certainly not ideal in your situation. Then again you can always fool around with changing out op-amps, I'll bet thats fun.:)

Nice review Doug,I concur fully
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