DAC - Aqua Formula or Aqua La Scala

Dave and Troy,
I've been fortunate to hear a Chord MScaler+DAC combo with optical isolation on the dual coax interface. When the MScaler (and everything upstream) is on a battery and the TT2 (or even Hugo2) is on another battery you are presenting absolutely transparent dac-direct signals to the ultra linear persona 9H.
I'm single mindedly pursuing playback with zero RF noise intrusion to the DAC or amplification. When I do, any perceived brightness goes away completely.  Everything just sounds amazingly real ...and this is the only criteria to pursue in my opinion.
Dan

Dmance, you heard that combo on your system? Or somewhere else?

We have not heard that specific combo setup exactly as you’ve heard so we can’t really comment on that, the Dave which we have heard and most Chord Digital like DCS goes for speed articulation and transparency, never heard a Chord digital setup that we would say that sounds lush or rich.

Remember one persons’ transparency can be another persons too bright. So it would all come down to system matching.

We would still stick with our recommendations of going tube preamp then the choice of digital can be taken separately.

We had a client who demoed the T+A Dac 8 DSD vs the Chord Dave and was very impressed by how close the T+A Dac was to the Dave.

You should hear one if you can shockingly good digital $4,200.00 then invest in an Innous Zenith which is also your Roon Core and can upsample Tidal to DSD and you will get a very similar sound for less money and have a Roon Core to boot.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Paradigm, Innous, Aqua, T+A dealers

audiotroy - In your experience will moving to a tube pre-amp provide more benefit over losing ARC?

yes, the Anthem Str is a decent preamp and a decent dac but you can get far better results by upgrading to even better electronics.

The Aqua Hifi’s La Scala MKII Optologic DAC uses 2 ECC81 tubes in its analog section.  I was told the life of these tubes is around 10,000 hours (?).  When you are finished listening to the DAC, do you turn if off or leave it on?   What is the impact of the turning on and off have on the tubes?  Or, does the DAC have a standby feature that reduces the current to the tubes?  Please explain how this works?

How hard is it to change the tubes?   Are replacement tubes easy to find?  How do you know when the tubes need to be replaced?   

Any other comments on the Aqua Hifi’s La Scala MKII Optologic DAC?   I like the La Scala MKII DAC but, as you can see from my questions, I have concerns with its tubes.  Thanks....