The tube DAC you tried may simply be better than the ECM. It’s a winner if it sounds more musical to you. Adding a tube buffer won't necessarily turn a pigs ear into a silk purse.
Decware Z Box
Has anyone had any experience with this particular tube buffer? This is a " ....I can't stop tinkering..." question for sure. I use an Electrocompanient ECM Dac/Streamer which is very very nice. But recently while shopping for a dac for my second system in my office I listened to a tube dac and upon return home to my ECM noted that the tube dac added texture and overtones to voices and made woodwinds sound more "woody" for lack of a better description. I have had several dacs and really do not want to replace the ECM. So I wondered if adding a tube buffer might nudge the ECM towards the tubed dac's sound. As always thanks in advance for your insights.
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i have a wonderful decware z-stage -- single 12au7 ultra simple tube stage with attenuation/gain capability -- an added benefit of the single dual triode is that you can really hear the differences amongst tubes you use in it! fun! it does what you would expect, add a modicum of tubey goodness to an otherwise too sanitized solid state sound i have since moved to lampizator tube dacs - but i keep this little jewelbox of a component around for potential future use! https://www.decwareproducts.com/product-page/zstage-10-deposit much written on this online, just search
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