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Does a Tube Dac make sense?


I’m  in the market for a dac since I bought a Musical Paradise MP701MKII Tube Preamp few months back, does it make sense to buy a tube dac? The seller Garry is suggesting to get the Musical Paradise MP D2 MKIII which is a tube dac with a AK4490 but can be upgraded to AK4499 but I’m leaning towards the RME ADI2 which is almost the same price as the MP tube dac. I’m finding it hard to justify a $1k dac but I have read a lot of forums that suggests the RME or the SMSL M400 and Denafrips Ares II but I’m a sucker for vu meters and spectrum analyzers but if the MP tube dac is a good match for my MP tube preamp I’m willing to give it a go.
stibin

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invalid
1,085 posts
 
Also dacs with tube output don’t drive very well into the next equipment, be it passive pre active pre or direct to poweramp if it is lower than <20kohm input impedance.
As tube dacs usually have high output impedance and are capacitor coupled, which "could" also roll off the bass those low input impedances <20kohm.


I have to disagree with this, I'm getting a tube dac that can drive any preamp it's output impedence is 200ohm.
invalid
1,085 posts
 
A Tube DAC softens the sound. A sound that would not need to be softened if the DAC was able to avoid certain digital distortions. Tubes are a band aid....

Tubes sound more like real music.
invalid
1,085 posts
 
There are no tube output DACs on the market that are as linear as the best solid state output DACs. You could make one more linear, but that would take feedback, more tubes, etc. and you would probably run into noise limits before you the linearity of a SS DAC. 






Tubes are more linear devices than transistors
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