Experience with SoulNote Dac2?

@bluethinker Thanks for the update and I am glad it is going well. I have found similar results going from the Merason to the Bricasti M3 coupled with the QLN 3 speakers. It was too much of a good thing and the Bricasti brought a much more incisive sound, not bright, but more detailed and crystal clear. No ding against Merason by any means, a very musical DAC, but not the best fit with QLN.

I am looking up the Bricasti chain now, likely the M1. It might just be implementation of inputs on the Bricasti, but I have found the network interface as a Roon endpoint to far surpass USB and SPDIF. It sort of limits my DAC choices going forward though. There are some D2's out there at a reasonable price, and I was toying with the idea, but I would have to add a streamer to my existing server. 

As a recommended tweak, I had very good results adding a Stack Regenerator in front of my server. It really cleans things up.

Happy Listening!

@udhasfan - Thank you! 
 

@zlone - I realize I have not addressed the question of how the SoulNote d2 paired with the QLN prestige 3. In brief, the SoulNote d2 absolutely woke up the QLN speakers. I’m running the SoulNote D2 with two amps. Am AGD audion mkiii and a Qualiton p200 tube amp. Both sound great with the Soulnote D2 with the QLN speakers. The sound? It’s lively, spacious and nicely detailed with lots of leading edge energy compared to the Merason. 

I noticed on another thread you might be considering other speakers than QLN. How is your audio journey going? Any speakers under consideration? 

@bluethinker Thanks for following, I am happy to hear you have found good synergy with the SoulNote and the QLN speakers. As noted in my post above, I had similar results changing from Merason to Bricasti.

Yes, I have been trying out some new speakers as noted in another thread. I am currently running a pair of Studio Electric M4’s. These are excellent speakers, and very different in sound from the Qln’s, notably faster in the mids and highs, without being bright. It has made me think I really don’t want warm speakers. I am also considering a pair of Marten Oscar Duo’s.

I have yet to plug the Qln’s back in, that will be a telling moment.

I too am looking for a DAC upgrade, but my ears seem to like R2R more than Delta Sigma.  I have currently have Mola Mola Tambaqui and the Mearsom DAC1 mk2 and the Denafrips Venus 15th on top of my list.

@curiousjim - What are your other audio components? I've demoed the Mola Mola in my living room and own the Merason Dac1 MKii and SoulNote D2. They are all very different sounding dacs. I've come to understand how much the speaker, amp, and streamer components will determine what a dac will sound like in a system. 

I don't plan on ever selling the Merason or SoulNote dacs due to their respective strengths. The mola mola was something entirely different in my system. Candidly, I'd love to pick one up when funds allow for variety.