It sounds like you made things better, but I think that yiu won't know what you're missing until you try an r2r. Tube buffers are just a band aid.
Can you help pinpoint why I am now satisfied with my digital setup?
Why ask why? Bud dry. Right? Why ask if you are satisfied? Just be. Here goes....
I put out a thread recently how I couldn't get my digital to sound good enough to listen for hours on end. It sounded great, but nowhere close to my analog front end. Many users recommended I might try an R2R DAC. While researching those and other solutions, I did the following:
Instead of feeding my Primaluna integrated with the NAD M51 DAC, I ran the NAD M51 analog out in XLR/balanced to a Schitt Freya, then I ran single ended RCA out from the Schitt to the Primaluna. I turned the Schitt preamp volume attenuator to its maximum. Voila! Well, maybe not equal to my vinyl front end, but I can now listen for way longer periods.
The NAD M51 is not what you'd call an overbearing DAC sound. I'd say it's neutral to the warm side of neutral.
I thought the short answer was the improvement is because I'm adding a tube buffer, vis-à-vis the Schitt Freya, to the DAC output signal. But, wasn't I buffering the signal before when I fed the NAD DAC to the Primaluna? Is the improvement due to tubes on tubes (Freya on Primaluna)?
I also note that in the summer when I ran the NAD M51 into the Freya driving an NAD M22 amp I felt nearly the same as I did running the NAD into the Primaluna. Is this just tubes on tubes? I see no other explanation.
I'm a bit fussy so I've been hesitant to say this solved the problem without extensive listening. But now that I'm a week in to this setup, I find it works and think that will remain my long term view.
I put out a thread recently how I couldn't get my digital to sound good enough to listen for hours on end. It sounded great, but nowhere close to my analog front end. Many users recommended I might try an R2R DAC. While researching those and other solutions, I did the following:
Instead of feeding my Primaluna integrated with the NAD M51 DAC, I ran the NAD M51 analog out in XLR/balanced to a Schitt Freya, then I ran single ended RCA out from the Schitt to the Primaluna. I turned the Schitt preamp volume attenuator to its maximum. Voila! Well, maybe not equal to my vinyl front end, but I can now listen for way longer periods.
The NAD M51 is not what you'd call an overbearing DAC sound. I'd say it's neutral to the warm side of neutral.
I thought the short answer was the improvement is because I'm adding a tube buffer, vis-à-vis the Schitt Freya, to the DAC output signal. But, wasn't I buffering the signal before when I fed the NAD DAC to the Primaluna? Is the improvement due to tubes on tubes (Freya on Primaluna)?
I also note that in the summer when I ran the NAD M51 into the Freya driving an NAD M22 amp I felt nearly the same as I did running the NAD into the Primaluna. Is this just tubes on tubes? I see no other explanation.
I'm a bit fussy so I've been hesitant to say this solved the problem without extensive listening. But now that I'm a week in to this setup, I find it works and think that will remain my long term view.