DAC suggestions for vinyl sound

Hi guys.

I was thinking of buying a DAC for when I'm in the mood for music that I don't have on LP. I'm not going to spend more than £500 on it but will probably buy second hand.

Which DAC's do you recommend for a warm sound reminiscent of playing LP's? And do you have any experience with tubed DAC's?

Thanks,

Mathias
 

bluedroog

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Not heard it but the Jolida tube DAC has a fan base and is around that price point, it is on its third incarnation so you could probably pick up a mk 1 or 2 quite cheap.

Jolida sell some pretty high end gear and this is one of their most affordable bits of kit.

http://www.jolida.com/product/glass-fx-tube-dac-iii
 

Macspur

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Earlier this year I picked up a modded PS Audio digital link 3 second hand £1500 new for £450 and the best praise I can give it is that its not far off the quality of my CDP, the EMC1UP which is renowned for its analogueSQ.

Mac

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bluedroog

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Mathias Frøslev said:
Thanks, will definitely look into it. Do you use a DAC yourself?

Yes I use an Audiolab M-DAC but it is quite digital sounding to my ears, fairly detailed and great feature set but a bit sterile for my tastes. I plan to get a DDDAC 1794 which is a kit and probably right up your street in terms of sound but way over budget and being a kit prohibative.
 

Alberich

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Slight curveball as they may be too vintage for you and you'll have to keep your eyes peeled but if you can find any of the Theta processors from the 90's I'm confident they'll give you the sound your looking for.

Theta DS Pro Progeny
Or
Theta DS Pro Basic.

Extremely analogue sounding kit with great body to the sound.
Brilliant dynamics as well.

They pop up on ebay for within your budget.
 

Macspur

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Alberich said:
Slight curveball as they may be too vintage for you and you'll have to keep your eyes peeled but if you can find any of the Theta processors from the 90's I'm confident they'll give you the sound your looking for.

Theta DS Pro Progeny Or Theta DS Pro Basic.

Extremely analogue sounding kit with great body to the sound. Brilliant dynamics as well.

They pop up on ebay for within your budget.

Agreed

Mac

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NSA_watch_my_toilet

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I had some listening in some tube DAC before. And I didn't liked them for hifi. Because they are not high fidel.

At the other side, they bring deformation in that could be interesting for some peoples.

And don't forget that your tube will be worn out after a certain time period. So make sure that the tube can actually be changed and the bias adapted when you change the tube.
 

TrevC

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Mathias Frøslev said:
Hi guys.

I was thinking of buying a DAC for when I'm in the mood for music that I don't have on LP. I'm not going to spend more than £500 on it but will probably buy second hand.

Which DAC's do you recommend for a warm sound reminiscent of playing LP's? And do you have any experience with tubed DAC's?

Thanks,

Mathias

Does vinyl have a warm sound? Not in my experience. To do that it would need a lower mid hump in the frequency response. As for a tubed DAC, pointless really. It can only detract from the sound quality.
 

Infiniteloop

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TrevC said:
Mathias Frøslev said:
Hi guys.

I was thinking of buying a DAC for when I'm in the mood for music that I don't have on LP. I'm not going to spend more than £500 on it but will probably buy second hand.

Which DAC's do you recommend for a warm sound reminiscent of playing LP's? And do you have any experience with tubed DAC's?

Thanks,

Mathias

Does vinyl have a warm sound? Not in my experience. To do that it would need a lower mid hump in the frequency response. As for a tubed DAC, pointless really. It can only detract from the sound quality.

IMO Tubes are not 'pointless' at all in terms of sound quality. Whilst they may not allow for a strictly accurate fidelity (neither do transistors for that matter and loudspeakers certainly don't), Many feel that the quality they give a sound signal is worth the slight loss of absolute fidelity (whatever that is).
 

Infiniteloop

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NSA_watch_my_toilet said:
I had some listening in some tube DAC before. And I didn't liked them for hifi. Because they are not high fidel.

At the other side, they bring deformation in that could be interesting for some peoples.

And don't forget that your tube will be worn out after a certain time period. So make sure that the tube can actually be changed and the bias adapted when you change the tube.

DAC tubes are usually low powered devices which typically have a 10,000 hour lifespan.

If you don't think Tubes are high fidel [sic], ask companies such as Audio Note, McIntosh, Unison Research, Pathos, Audio Research, EAR Yoshino etc. why they are still using them.
 

NSA_watch_my_toilet

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Please, don't mix the themes here. We are speaking about DAC's, not amps and pre-amps. But for jumping a little bit off topic with you. They sell them because there is a market for that. They are persons out there, believing that tube devices, are the best sounding hifi gear. And they will spend the bucks only for those kind of material. So if they are some customers, there will be some sellers. It's the same for double wired ready speaker enclosure and low resonant transport for cd players.

For a DAC, whatever the tube is that is actively involved in the process, his deformations will generally shine through (I write generally, because some tubes are placed in sound irrelevant positions, so it looks like tube dac, but is normal transitored dac). For some person it's a plus, for me it's a minus because they are already enough possibilities to have deformations in the wave pattern after the signal reaches your speakers. So I will not add some more of them before. But it's a personal choice in the end and I know that some peoples like their sound "hyper deformed".
 

TrevC

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Infiniteloop said:
TrevC said:
Mathias Frøslev said:
Hi guys.

I was thinking of buying a DAC for when I'm in the mood for music that I don't have on LP. I'm not going to spend more than £500 on it but will probably buy second hand.

Which DAC's do you recommend for a warm sound reminiscent of playing LP's? And do you have any experience with tubed DAC's?

Thanks,

Mathias

Does vinyl have a warm sound? Not in my experience. To do that it would need a lower mid hump in the frequency response. As for a tubed DAC, pointless really. It can only detract from the sound quality.

IMO Tubes are not 'pointless' at all in terms of sound quality. Whilst they may not allow for a strictly accurate fidelity (neither do transistors for that matter and loudspeakers certainly don't), Many feel that the quality they give a sound signal is worth the slight loss of absolute fidelity (whatever that is).

A lone valve stuck in the analogue part of a DAC doesn't actually bring anything to the party in terms of performance. It's just a gimmick. You can replace it with an identical sounding, or better sounding, bootstrap bipolar circuit or a FET, and it won't ever wear out or guzzle heater current.
 

Infiniteloop

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TrevC said:
Infiniteloop said:
TrevC said:
Mathias Frøslev said:
Hi guys.

I was thinking of buying a DAC for when I'm in the mood for music that I don't have on LP. I'm not going to spend more than £500 on it but will probably buy second hand.

Which DAC's do you recommend for a warm sound reminiscent of playing LP's? And do you have any experience with tubed DAC's?

Thanks,

Mathias

Does vinyl have a warm sound? Not in my experience. To do that it would need a lower mid hump in the frequency response. As for a tubed DAC, pointless really. It can only detract from the sound quality.

IMO Tubes are not 'pointless' at all in terms of sound quality. Whilst they may not allow for a strictly accurate fidelity (neither do transistors for that matter and loudspeakers certainly don't), Many feel that the quality they give a sound signal is worth the slight loss of absolute fidelity (whatever that is).

A lone valve stuck in the analogue part of a DAC doesn't actually bring anything to the party in terms of performance. It's just a gimmick. You can replace it with an identical sounding, or better sounding, bootstrap bipolar circuit or a FET, and it won't ever wear out or guzzle heater current.

Thank you for your opinion. - But it's just that.
 

TrevC

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Infiniteloop said:
TrevC said:
Infiniteloop said:
TrevC said:
Mathias Frøslev said:
Hi guys.

I was thinking of buying a DAC for when I'm in the mood for music that I don't have on LP. I'm not going to spend more than £500 on it but will probably buy second hand.

Which DAC's do you recommend for a warm sound reminiscent of playing LP's? And do you have any experience with tubed DAC's?

Thanks,

Mathias

Does vinyl have a warm sound? Not in my experience. To do that it would need a lower mid hump in the frequency response. As for a tubed DAC, pointless really. It can only detract from the sound quality.

IMO Tubes are not 'pointless' at all in terms of sound quality. Whilst they may not allow for a strictly accurate fidelity (neither do transistors for that matter and loudspeakers certainly don't), Many feel that the quality they give a sound signal is worth the slight loss of absolute fidelity (whatever that is).

A lone valve stuck in the analogue part of a DAC doesn't actually bring anything to the party in terms of performance. It's just a gimmick. You can replace it with an identical sounding, or better sounding, bootstrap bipolar circuit or a FET, and it won't ever wear out or guzzle heater current.

Thank you for your opinion. - But it's just that.

The assymetric waveform distortion of valves is pretty well documented.
 

Infiniteloop

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TrevC said:
Infiniteloop said:
TrevC said:
Infiniteloop said:
TrevC said:
Mathias Frøslev said:
Hi guys.

I was thinking of buying a DAC for when I'm in the mood for music that I don't have on LP. I'm not going to spend more than £500 on it but will probably buy second hand.

Which DAC's do you recommend for a warm sound reminiscent of playing LP's? And do you have any experience with tubed DAC's?

Thanks,

Mathias

Does vinyl have a warm sound? Not in my experience. To do that it would need a lower mid hump in the frequency response. As for a tubed DAC, pointless really. It can only detract from the sound quality.

IMO Tubes are not 'pointless' at all in terms of sound quality. Whilst they may not allow for a strictly accurate fidelity (neither do transistors for that matter and loudspeakers certainly don't), Many feel that the quality they give a sound signal is worth the slight loss of absolute fidelity (whatever that is).

A lone valve stuck in the analogue part of a DAC doesn't actually bring anything to the party in terms of performance. It's just a gimmick. You can replace it with an identical sounding, or better sounding, bootstrap bipolar circuit or a FET, and it won't ever wear out or guzzle heater current.

Thank you for your opinion. - But it's just that.

The assymetric waveform distortion of valves is pretty well documented.

Maybe, but it doesn't stop them from sounding great.

Transistors, transducers, indeed all electronics add distortion too.
 

Infiniteloop

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NSA_watch_my_toilet said:
Tube have distortion too. I'm not going the Marshall way, but even in hifi, you will have a quick distorsion raise with tubes.

Or do you mean something else ?

Yes of course Tubes have distortion, but the difference is that Tubes tend to produce the kind of distortion that sounds good to the ear. Transistors distort too, to a lesser extent, but the distortion they produce is different, and the ear doesn't like it.
 
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Infiniteloop said:
NSA_watch_my_toilet said:
Tube have distortion too. I'm not going the Marshall way, but even in hifi, you will have a quick distorsion raise with tubes.

Or do you mean something else ?

Yes of course Tubes have distortion, but the difference is that Tubes tend to produce the kind of distortion that sounds good to the ear. Transistors distort too, to a lesser extent, but the distortion they produce is different, and the ear doesn't like it.

But what is the point of adding a token valve to something like a DAC? It's just a sales gimmick. Transistor small signal amplifier distortion is so low as to be negligable. It certainly can't be heard in a quality design.
 

Andrewjvt

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Nigel Proctor said:
Infiniteloop said:
NSA_watch_my_toilet said:
Tube have distortion too. I'm not going the Marshall way, but even in hifi, you will have a quick distorsion raise with tubes.

Or do you mean something else ?

Yes of course Tubes have distortion, but the difference is that Tubes tend to produce the kind of distortion that sounds good to the ear. Transistors distort too, to a lesser extent, but the distortion they produce is different, and the ear doesn't like it.

But what is the point of adding a token valve to something like a DAC? It's just a sales gimmick. Transistor small signal amplifier distortion is so low as to be negligable. It certainly can't be heard in a quality design.

Why do you have the same id picture as trevor c?
 
Andrewjvt said:
Nigel Proctor said:
Infiniteloop said:
NSA_watch_my_toilet said:
Tube have distortion too. I'm not going the Marshall way, but even in hifi, you will have a quick distorsion raise with tubes.

Or do you mean something else ?

Yes of course Tubes have distortion, but the difference is that Tubes tend to produce the kind of distortion that sounds good to the ear. Transistors distort too, to a lesser extent, but the distortion they produce is different, and the ear doesn't like it.

But what is the point of adding a token valve to something like a DAC? It's just a sales gimmick. Transistor small signal amplifier distortion is so low as to be negligable. It certainly can't be heard in a quality design.

Why do you have the same id picture as trevor c?
Nice one, Andrew. Another/the same Trev in disguise? One is probably one too many...
 
nopiano said:
Andrewjvt said:
Nigel Proctor said:
Infiniteloop said:
NSA_watch_my_toilet said:
Tube have distortion too. I'm not going the Marshall way, but even in hifi, you will have a quick distorsion raise with tubes.

Or do you mean something else ?

Yes of course Tubes have distortion, but the difference is that Tubes tend to produce the kind of distortion that sounds good to the ear. Transistors distort too, to a lesser extent, but the distortion they produce is different, and the ear doesn't like it.

But what is the point of adding a token valve to something like a DAC? It's just a sales gimmick. Transistor small signal amplifier distortion is so low as to be negligable. It certainly can't be heard in a quality design.

Why do you have the same id picture as trevor c?
Nice one, Andrew. Another/the same Trev in disguise? One is probably one too many...

More than one TrevC? Surely not. This forum can only cope with so many doubters. :)
 

lpv

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Andrewjvt said:
Nigel Proctor said:
Infiniteloop said:
NSA_watch_my_toilet said:
Tube have distortion too. I'm not going the Marshall way, but even in hifi, you will have a quick distorsion raise with tubes.

Or do you mean something else ?

Yes of course Tubes have distortion, but the difference is that Tubes tend to produce the kind of distortion that sounds good to the ear. Transistors distort too, to a lesser extent, but the distortion they produce is different, and the ear doesn't like it.

But what is the point of adding a token valve to something like a DAC? It's just a sales gimmick. Transistor small signal amplifier distortion is so low as to be negligable. It certainly can't be heard in a quality design.

Why do you have the same id picture as trevor c?

the beard guy is zoomed in..
 

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