Audio Note DAC Owners- please share your thoughts

Another AN DAC2.1x Sig owner here. It was purchased used from a dealer and I had it upgraded with all the latest internals this year. I love this DAC, music just sounds so right. This is the first dac I've owned that I can play poorly mastered CDs all the way through.

I've found that the digital cable has a major affect on SQ, it took some auditioning to find what I like. AN DACs also respond well to tube rolling. I've tried different output and rectifier tubes, always NOS. 

I wouldn't be concerned about AN DACs being 18 bit. The designers tried different chips but since these DACs sample 16/44.1 and 24/96 through an Analogue Devices chip with no digital filters, there was no audible improvement when going higher than 18 bit. 

I upgraded my AN preamp within the family but I don't feel the need to  upgrade the dac.

@lowrider57 

Thanks for the notes regarding your 2.1x Signature. At some point I’d like to discuss more about the upgrades you’ve performed and how the choices were made.

Best-

Designsfx

The issue with the SW1X is it’s priced on point (or more) with Audio Note but it resells like absolute crap. Caveat Emptor if you want to sell it, can take a while and you will take a larger hit than if you were to resell AN.

It may very well be a better product than Audio Note, but personally I think their pricing is ahead of itself in the US market. It’s more than just having a good dac when you’re about spending $10k+ on a dac, you want to know you have some equity in the piece of gear (like AN).

There is no trade up program either, and SW1X is CONSTANTLY changing parts etc, so a 3.1 today will different than a 3.1 tomorrow...So although I love the quality and approach of SW1X it’s a hard pass for those reasons.I’ll let everyone else lose money on those dacs until they get traction at those prices.

@jc51373

I agree with you on the SW1 likely not having the appeal of the AN when it comes to resale but I think the general theme of your comments can be applied to almost any higher tier component.

Honestly- I was fascinated by the Audio Note mystique for some time but after months of looking and poorly orchestrated demos the appeal ran out of steam. I do believe they have a very eloquent circuit design and there is no doubt that when combined within an AN system there would be some magic there. But to your point above when I realized how the price structure vs model/configuration or levels worked I became less impressed.

In the end I had looked at and listened to quite many other dacs but most of them didn’t do any better than what I already owned. After a year or so of trying things out I ultimately went with a Lampizator Golden Atlantic TRP3 balanced and it has been one of the best purchases I’ve made.

You do not need to pair AN dacs with AN gear that is a widely accepted misnomer, not true in the least. No different than any other manufacturer. 

I did have a Lampi in here and it was a nice DAC but in the end I preferred the AN sound over the Lampi. I could care less about DSD and the like so that didn't resonate with me.