Insight w/ kora hermes 24/192 DAC?

I have owned one (24/192 version) for a couple of years and can't bring myself to part with it. I had it modified by Audio Magic and put some telefunken tubes in it and it just sounds like music to me. Vocals are full and real sounding. The bass is low and tight and the highs are silky smooth. At the same time there is depth and detail in the soundstage. I also own a Camelot Round Table mkIII which upsamples to 24/192. Camelot feels that it is one of the best DVD/CD players out there but for most CDs I still prefer straight 16/44 out of the Round Table into the Kora. The Camelot is thin sounding in comparison. I don't know if its the tubes or what but the Kora simply sounds better to me. The Kora is a 24/192 DAC but it does not upsample (at least not the version I have). I think its certainly worth a listen. There should be other threads here on Audiogon unless they have been deleted. There was a lot of discussion about this DAC a couple of years ago.

I've owned the last 24/192 version I with the Auricaps and Jenalabs prior to the introduction of the Hermes II for almost two years and really like it. I prefer it greatly over the Bel Canto DAC 1.1 I used before it because of its more natural presentation. The Bel Canto sounded a bit analytical by comparison, while the Kora sounded more organic. The Kora gave up nothing in the detail department to the Bel Canto and bettered it in soundstaging width and depth. I also love the ability to tune the sound of the Kora through tuberolling to match my tastes and also whenever I need to make an adjustment to compensate for any equipment or cable changes. I see a few pop on the 'GoN every now and then for $800-1000. Good luck!

I thought the Kora DAC a great value. However, I preferred the Audio Note DAC 1.1X at about the same price point.

I bought one here on a'gon several months ago and could not be more pleased. I had recently sold my tube pre amp in exchange for a solid state preamp/processor and sorely missed the 'tube' sound which the Kora returned to my system. The Kora has a richness and detail, especially on vocals, that I find musical and non fatiguing. I would recommend it highly