tube dacs vs solid state dacs

A while back I purchased an Audio Research DAC8 strictly on the premise that it sounded better than any other I'd heard, design concerns aside. Before I purchased it I had a long conversation with a fellow at A.R.C. I asked him why they stopped using tubes in there newest DAC, he said they built and tried both technologies for there latest DAC, but the all solid state unit just sounded better to everyone there.

"and cheap power supply in all the tubed DACs"

So if you are insinuating that this is true of ALL tube DACS, I call BS on it.

Shakey

Shakey,
I agree with you, there`s no way you can generalize that way at all.Tube and SS DACs both run the full spectrum from poor to exceptional in regards to power supply quality.

Yeah, that's just Elizabeth painting with that broad brush of hers again. Nothing new to see here......

Shakey

My sense is that Liz and Marakanetz may be making a fair point. I used to own the ARC Ref CD-7 with upgraded power supply. Some called it the Ref CD-7.5. I recently bought the Ref CD-8. To my untrained eye, the innards of the CD-7 and CD-8 look very similar. The main difference is the DAC IC. The CD-8 uses a Burr Brown DAC. The CD-7 uses another type of DAC -- I forget the name. To my old ears, the CD-8 simply sounds better than the CD-7. I found the CD-7 to be bottom heavy and thick. The CD-8, by contrast, has more air. The bottom end is less viscous than the CD-7. I attribute the difference to the DAC -- not the guts. Can't speak to other ARC DACs, like the DAC 8, but I think I make my point. It may very well be that in the case of a DAC or CDP source device, the DAC IC is the main driver of sound quality versus a SS or tube gain stage -- don't know. But I can report that the DAC in the Ref CD-8 sounds better than the DAC in the CD-7. My sense is that the innards are less critical. FWIW and IMO.

An interesting comparison might be how the ARC CD-5 compares to the REF CD-8. Both use the same DAC. However, I believe the CD-5 is pretty much all SS versus the CD-8 which has a tube gain stage and tube regulated power supply. If anyone has critically compared the two CDPs, please chime in.