Orchid vs TUBADOUR III - Help me choose

Hey martin-anderson,

I'm the one who wrote the review on the Orchid for Six Moons.  Since I wrote the review I have had another two DACS in-house to compare it to and it's still my favorite for the reasons stated in the review.

Waltersalas, has great taste and ears, so I'm sure the upgraded Tubadour III is a wonderful DAC.  However, its twice the price and I don't know if its a better performer.  Remember, if you purchase the Orchid from Linear Tube Audio you get a 30 day in-house trial and can return it if its not what you are looking for.

Where on the AudioMirror site does it speak to what the upgrades are and how to order them?

Hi @teajay your are just the person I wanted an opinion from (:
I took a big chance for importing the Tekton DI to Denmark and paid 1/3 extra to get them here. It was the right decision. Tired of mainstream speakers with 6" woofers and a tweeter.

I have listen to the Chord Qutest and the PS Audio DirectStream. The Qutest is a good DAC but I love the PS DirectStream, but its too expensive. It's funny there are both FPGA DAC, do I sense a trend here? 

I want to hear more music, not details. I think most modern DAC's are like the soap opera effect on tv's. You get a 3D like picture but it looks very unreal.

I am rambling need to take a decision (:

Well martin-andersen, you tried the FPGA approach, and if you liked the far more expensive PS DirectStream then my conclusion would be the Orchid would be a delight for your musical tastes.  I'm not saying it's the "greatest" DAC in the world.  But, for my tastes, that I state in the Six Moons review, the Orchid it delivers what I'm listening for in my system.  It competes with much more expensive pieces.

I was in the same position and went for the Audio Mirror. The deciding factor was I couldn’t find anyone rave about the Orchid and the Audio Mirror is designed around the same chip Audio Note has been stuck on for years. There is a review on the Pink Fish on the Orchid the person loved it at first, got obsessed about changing the chip then later sold it off. Look into Audio Note reviews you will get an idea how the chip frames the music. I have the standard model and will look at upgrading once solid comparitive reviews come in. Standard sounds great just enjoying it for now. Curious what tubes worked better over stock? The SR blue fuse works well. Can someone comment on tube options.