Former MHDT Havana Lovers: What did you move onto?


I have owned and loved this DAC for the past year, but speaker and amp upgrades along with moving to a bigger room have started to flesh out it's weaknesses, namely lack of fine inner details and congestion with complex passages, particularly orchestral. What can give me the same kind of lovely organic timbre with more clarity and detail and perhaps deeper soundstage? I just picked up the Bel Canto DAC2.5 and while definitely more detailed, it just doesn't have that natural and organic sound and is ultimately a little too clinical and fatiguing to my ears (Benchmark wo uld probably make my head explode).

Yes, I have rolled NOS tubes - Bendix 2c51, WE396A/2c51, Tungsol 2c51, but that can only do so much. I do have V-Cap OIMP caps that I'm going have installed so that should help, but to what degree remains to be seen.

I am considering trying the Bryston BDA-1 and Ayre QB-9. Tranquility SE looks interesting but relatively high output impedance and not particularly high voltage will probably not work too well with my Placette Passive Linestage. Suggestions under $2k used or new appreciated.

Thanks!
eugene81

Showing 2 responses by jult52

Doug - Went over to dagogo and read your rave which is very interesting. For you passive users, the MiniMax has a tubed output impedance of 3k ohms (too high) but solid state impedance of 200 ohms, which is perfect. Output vootage is 2.5v in both stages.

Doug - Could you comment on how you'd compare the Eastern Electric to other good NOS DACs (Mdht, Audio Note, Nixon) and how would you compare the tubed & solid state outputs from this DAC?
Doug - I look forward to seeing your comments on other NOS DACs when you have time to do the comparisons. In the meantime, you've really raised my curiosity about the MiniMax. Completely agree about digital cables. They make a big difference.