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I have three digital sources

I have a 4 year old Audio Note dac 2.1. I used to think it was a pretty solid piece of gear. Problem was when I bought a Cambridge Audio dacmagic to mostly stream mlb baseball games from my pc. Trouble started brewing when I hooked the dac magic to my Accustic Arts transport and it was every bit as solid a performer or even better than the Audio Note dac.

Then indignities on top of indignity I bought an Oppo 83se as a blueray player and to play sacd, and it clearly is in a different league (as in better) than my Audio Note dac and dacmagic on anything it plays. I run two systems - one computer based and one with the oppo as source. The Audio Note is the odd piece out but have been thinking should I upgrade to 3.1 (I run Audio Note HE speakers that I love in my main system), should I sell up and think about a newer technology dac that will mate with my transport or computer better, or even wondering if I just need to roll some new tubes into the 2.1 (I still have all original tubes). Just looking for a little discussion about where to take my digital sources.
ladavid
ladavid OP
79 posts
 
I may well be legally deaf - certainly something going on when a 3k dac and 4k transport aren't in same league as $800 blueray player.

My other gear is decent - a 300b amp and Lamm preamp. My dac is a 2.1 kit and wondering if something is not quite right with it but there was a time when it was blowing away my other sources. One of my thoughts is to see if I can get it upgraded to 3.1 dac. Going to spend some time doing serious listening with it this weekend. The Oppo is way ahead right now on both detail and dynamics - there is meat on the bones and less so with the AN / AA combo. Maybe I have become easily seduced by detail and dynamics and am missing the truthful timbre. My father in law was a horn player so will have to pull out his favourites Miles, Dizzy and some Roy Hargrove.
paulfolbrecht
603 posts
 
I wouldn't think the differences in timbre & tone would be subtle, but color me confused. Your system sounds top-notch - just the kind of gear I like - and I'm sure you can hear.

I would certainly try replacing all the tubes. In fact my DAC is probably due for a new set too. Good thing they're all cheap.
ladavid OP
79 posts
 
Okay - pretty embarrassed to write about this one. Had a new set of 6922's around so opened up the dac this morning to replace my older pair and found I had a set of herbie's (I love your products most of the time) tube dampers on the 6922's. Popped in the new tubes, left the dampers off and bingo dynamics, detail, and tone galore. Will let the new tubes burn in a bit but right out of the box a big improvement - don't think it was the tubes, more likely the dampers just weren't the right thing for my dac - like the cotton is out of ears! Paul thanks for all your good feedback - think problem is solved.

David
nilthepill
842 posts
 
I too had found the (I think they are herbies) dampers to damp the sound too much- making it unnatural. On different tube equipment though. Just to confirm, that IME, dampers do more harm than good- if you did not need dampers to begin with.
paulfolbrecht
603 posts
 
Please let us know at some point if it was the dampers or the tubes!

(I'm curious about a design that would seem to rely on undamped tube resonance for positive qualities...)
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