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A Newcomer to Digital Looking to Upgrade My Dac, Tubes? Ideas?

Being a relative newcomer to digital downloads and playback, I love the convenience when I am looking for a short music session and don't feel like going through my vinyl. I find the digital quality pretty good, but looking to upgrade my dac to get some additional warmth into my playback, I'm thinking maybe a tube dac, not sure what I should spend but cost wise was thinking of $ 2,000.00 as a budget. Not sure if such a dac exists, or if you have suggestions. I have built up a pretty good collection of both PCM and DSD HD music, mostly copies of what I have on vinyl but the vinyl has seen better days. Currently I am using a TEAC UD-501, tube preamp- (Schiit Mjolnir 2), Amp.- (Adcom 555se), Balanced throughout usually through my PC but I also use my portable through the coax to the dac. Speakers are Wilson Benesch Square 2. Unfortunately I have an L shaped listening room, which seconds as our living room, typical of what you find in a condo, volume levels are generally low to medium, to spare the neighbours, and I split my time between the speakers and headphones.
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Showing 1 response by mrklas

mrklas
441 posts
 
I encourage you listen to a few DACs

Several have headphone amp and DAC capabilities if that’s of value.

In my experience a higher end DAC makes a difference - the details and specifically the separation of delicate sounds when music is dynamic is quite revealing. Bells, bass guitar resonance and other sounds become more distinct within the music.

I have a Moon 280D it was a significant upgrade from the Node 2i and the Moon interface is excellent if you are a big user of Tidal, Quboz and music on a server. It’s $3k new and I’m sure you can find a used 1 at $2k.

Since you are using a tube preamp I would focus on the DAC that performs to your sensibilities.
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