Success Rolling Opamps in EE Minimax DAC


I'll try to reign in my nearly unbridled enthusiasm for a recent uber-economical tweak, rolling Opamps in the Eastern Electric Minimax DAC.

On encouragement of Chris and Melissa Owens from Clarity Cable I swapped them out (note; this voids the warranty!), with resounding success. A more powerful upgrade per dollar in decades of messing with systems and tweaks does not come to mind.

My brief instructional discussion on this experience appears at Dagogo.com

http://dagogo.com/View-Article.asp?hArticle=841
douglas_schroeder

Showing 2 responses by mrtennis

i own the minimax dac. i have several nos tubes. i believe that if you use the tube gain stage, you bypass the opamp. is this correct ?

if this is correct, it may be more productive of your time to tunr the dac with a tube rather than try to find a suitable opamp.

also, if i am correct isn't the absence of an opamp preferable to the presence of an op amp ??
hi doug:

there are many opamps available.

i don't want to listen to too many for obvious reasons.

if i were to replace the single opamp feeding the tube, i would to select one which "slows" things down, is less transparent and has more of a classic tube sound.

anotherwords a bit of veiling or hf roll off wouldn't hurt.

since you have experience with opamps, could you suggest one or two.

i am not looking for greater soundstage or resolution, but rather to get more of a euphonic (classic-tube) sound from the dac.