Does a Tube Dac make sense?

The RME ADI 2fs is a great DAC especially with a linear power supply. I have a ModWright LS36.5 which is a nice preamp. Lately I’ve been running my RME/Teddy Pardo direct into my amp and I’m not missing my tube preamp in the chain whatsoever. The ModWright is not a creamy sounding preamp but it’s also far from sounding thin, sterile, cold or flat like some solid state preamps. The RME going direct loses none of the attributes of my ModWright, but where it pulls ahead is it’s transparency, it’s brutally honest, but even on mediocre recordings I prefer going direct. The noise floor is nonexistent, so even though it is very revealing, it simply passes what it is being feed doing very little to alter or smear things. The RME has tons of settings to alter its sound to ones taste, either with tone controls, Eq, and different filters. I run mine with all settings set to lock or direct and with the sharp filter and I find it easily competes with my tube preamp. It’s all about synergy so if you think your system is a little on the thin or harsh side then maybe the RME is not the right DAC as it’s not going to butter things over but point out you may have shortcomings elsewhere. It’s a great DAC and worthy of being connected to cables that cost far more than itself. Those using the stock power supply and power cable have no idea how great this DAC is.

OK MAYBE. I have a Mcintosh C2500 it has a DAC and valves, does that count?

Regards

I use to have a jolida jd 100 which had a tubed output stage. It wasn’t very good and got replaced with a musically cd/dac. The music hall is 10 times better. I do run tube separates and I have the mytek liberty now. It sounds very good.

Makes sense to me as well. You can spend months reading/researching but in the end you need to listen for yourself. I went through this a few years ago before purchasing my MHDT Lab Pagoda. This DAC turned out to be one of the best audio purchases I've made. Never a problem driving downstream gear. I'm currently using it direct to a Decware SE84UFO and it's equally impressive when using my solid state gear. Best of luck to you.

I own the MP-D2 mk2 with the AKM 4497 chip, Mundorf caps, and NOS Amperex tubes. No regrets here.

The value in this DAC for someone in your position (unsure of tube components) is the ability to easily parts swap rather than whole component swap. Tubes, caps, even chip swaps are possible, and the changes do have a noticeable effect on sound.

There is a fairly active Musical Paradise thread on audiocircle that would be worth your time.