Hello (Chord) Dave, You're My Wife Now!

Psilonaught

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I decided to put my WE300B back into my Acuhorn last night and I was transported into a fast, accurate and very punchy audio landscape. Fascinating how different
triodes make such a big change. Previously using type 45s. The output stage is where most of the magic happens I need to keep remembering!

Really want to try some PX4 Orsam/GEC but they are stupid money.
 
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Musicraft

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We took delivery of a beast of a DAC today. This DAC at 41kg! is sold/comes in a flight case :cool: You know a product is likely to be something special when the delivery driver says "this is bloody heavy" "what is in there?" :D

Anyway, hope to unbox the DAC in the coming days, share some details and hope it is available for the bakeoff -

DAC fc del 3.jpg

DAC fc del 4.jpg

DAC fc del 5.jpg
 

newlash09

Iam deaf at the ears, but way more dumb in between
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We took delivery of a beast of a DAC today. This DAC at 41kg! is sold/comes in a flight case :cool: You know a product is likely to be something special when the delivery driver says "this is bloody heavy" "what is in there?" :D

Anyway, hope to unbox the DAC in the coming days, share some details and hope it is available for the bakeoff -

DAC fc del 3.jpg

DAC fc del 4.jpg

DAC fc del 5.jpg
41 kgs for a dac. I don't want to know the weight of this companies poweramps :D
 

Juancho

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Same thing... apart from the money! The Apex thing will have unsettled the relatively dCS-settled. Yes there have been various models at different price levels named after different composers since, well, forever. And yes, it would be cheaper to upgrade an existing than to buy a new. But you'd never get back that additional outlay (£5,000 ish?) if reselling so some will have rationalised that this it the time to step up. Some will just have been made restless...

My post was mainly challenging the notion that a few recent Rossinis coming to market was because their owners might be finding their DACs "underwhelming". I merely gave one reason as to why that might be. Another might be because HiFiShark is pretty scammy compared with eBay, though I've bought there myself and all was well.
I compared dcs Bartok, Mola Mola Tambaqui, MSB Discrete + the top MSB model and Rockna Wavedream to each other and my own built DACs. The only one I could live with was the MSB Discrete. The dcs Bartok IMO represents good value at its secondhand price of circa £7.5k but is no way worth £16k. The MSB Discrete with the inputs I need cost around £16k too, but sound better IMO. None of these DACs outperform my own DAC with tube output stage retailing at just over £3k so that's what I'm sticking with
 

Fourlegs

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Speaking of the proposed bake-off, how is it looking to try and secure a potential date @Fourlegs ?
I have been waiting for the legend that is Dr Sean Jacobs to visit me and fine tune his latest version of the ARC6 power supply for the Dave. That visit happened today and by the time that he left he had not only installed a new power supply board in my Dave but had also sprinkled some of his power supply magic on my MScaler and has left me with a prototype MScaler power supply upgrade for evaluation. Even Sean was rather surprised at how good that is sounding.

So I am ready willing and able to host the DAC bake off. I must say however that I would very much like to hear the Apex Rossini so I think it would be worth waiting for word on that from @antonio66.
 

Psilonaught

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Audio Music DAC/1 by any chance? £13,000? Massive separate power supply accounting for the weight?
Now that’s quite a beast.
I still regret not buying the audio music monos that were on here a while back. I baulked at the price then end up buying way more expensive amps a few months later 🫣
 

MF 1000

Extreme Full Range 😱
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I’d come across with my Lector digicode 2.24 …..not in the same price bracket as those being mentioned but interesting to hear the valve output stage against some of these SS devices.
 

antonio66

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I've been listening to my Acuhorn with Emission Labs 45 Mesh Globes and the sound is, to my ears, absolutely stunning, so happy to contribute my DAC.

Very keen to compare it to a Dave and DCS.
This is certainly the dac I'd like to hear, as soon as I have any info on the Apex upgrade I'll post on here.
 

karlsushi

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I've been listening to my Acuhorn with Emission Labs 45 Mesh Globes and the sound is, to my ears, absolutely stunning, so happy to contribute my DAC.

Very keen to compare it to a Dave and DCS.
Does yours include the optional volume control @Psilonaught ?

I think Fourlegs will attest that a true comparison with DAVE ought to exclude a preamp as DAVE is best used with the internal volume.
 

Psilonaught

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mine has a gain controller on the rear but it isn't designed to be used as a preamp.

I can bring my KR Audio P135 DHT preamp which also uses 45 tubes.
 

Fourlegs

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Does yours include the optional volume control @Psilonaught ?

I think Fourlegs will attest that a true comparison with DAVE ought to exclude a preamp as DAVE is best used with the internal volume.

On this I think we made a mistake when we did the Terminator vs Dave bake off because the Terminator needs a preamp and so to level the playing field we used the same preamp with the Dave as well. The only preamp we had available was not really in the same league as the Terminator or the Dave. Hence why I propose that at the next bake off we use those Dacs which can be used direct to power amps as they are designed to be used, ie direct, and only use a preamp when the Dac has a fixed output volume. So I am suggesting that those dac owners who use a preamp should each bring their own preamp. The only caveat to that might be if we can get hold of say a MFA Baby Ref V2!! then we could use that for all the fixed output dacs without fear that it might degrade their sound quality (or colour it!).
 
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Fourlegs

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What input type will you be using? USB, Co-ax, Toslink, ST, AES/EBU, HDMI, etc.. as these seem to sound different on the same bit of kit.
My Antipodes K50 has USB, BNC, AES and optical so most tastes can be catered for and will be available but the way I get best sound in my system is to use the usb output from the K50 then take that through an Innuos USB reclocker and then through an AudioWise SRC.DX usb to bnc convertor. I personally then use that bnc output to connect to my Mscaler but like I say there will be options for all.
 
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