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Does a Tube Dac make sense?


I’m  in the market for a dac since I bought a Musical Paradise MP701MKII Tube Preamp few months back, does it make sense to buy a tube dac? The seller Garry is suggesting to get the Musical Paradise MP D2 MKIII which is a tube dac with a AK4490 but can be upgraded to AK4499 but I’m leaning towards the RME ADI2 which is almost the same price as the MP tube dac. I’m finding it hard to justify a $1k dac but I have read a lot of forums that suggests the RME or the SMSL M400 and Denafrips Ares II but I’m a sucker for vu meters and spectrum analyzers but if the MP tube dac is a good match for my MP tube preamp I’m willing to give it a go.
stibin

Showing 3 responses by jdoris

jdoris
972 posts
 
@jjss49

There certainly s a wide range of confidence with which opinions are tendered! ;)

jdoris
972 posts
 
I'm not getting why tubed digital sources are a bad idea, in general.
Georgehifi mentions added challenges mating with downstream equipment, but are there other reasons?
Surely there are better and worse designs, but people have mentioned numerous well thought of units, including high end ones.  (I'd add add Lampizator to the list; I've heard several of their models sounding quite good in a friend's system.)  I'm now solid state, but I've had and enjoyed both.

I'm genuinely curious, but barring more information, it seems like a blanket dismissal of tubed digital is hard to maintain.
jdoris
972 posts
 
Totally agree with charles1dad that hobbyists often affiliate with either an "accuracy crowd" or a "musicality crowd," and that members of these different crowds are likely to have very different preferences.
I expect that divide explains some of the preferences on this thread.
Very difficult to see how any discussion of measurements or coloration could resolve that difference of preference -- which doesn't seem like a bad thing to me.
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