2. digital
  3. 161488-147734

Looking for a vinylesk sounding DAC

I cannot say I wasn’t satisfied with my system.

Laptop (Quobuz Studio) - > Schiit Bifrost 2 - > Ocellia Reference RCA - > Werner Acoustics, Selene (active tube preamp using two VT-231 from RCA) - > passive preamp - > Ocellia Reference RCA - > First Watt F6 dual mono custom built - > HEDD Audio’s "Heddphone" / Hifiman HE 4

From the beginning I started to built it I had a quite concrete idea of what it should sound like in the end: vinylesk without using vinyl. It took me a while to get there and now I really thought I got it: Due to the F6 the outcome is brutally powerful and incredibly fast while the tube stage adds lots of body, depth and a rich organic undertone. Finally the RCA’s from Ocellia were adding the fine raffinement and a nice holographic soundstage. Nothing smears, in just every situation everything stays transparent, well controlled/articulated and the separation is just excellent.

BUT when listening to streamed vinyl I still feel the need for action - I just want EVERY track from quobuz to sound like this. Please take just some seconds and listen to this:

https://musicandvinyl.blogspot.com/2020/08/haruomi-hosono-from-aegean-sea.html?m=1

There is just MORE elasticity, MORE tonal density, MORE plankton, MORE concentration to the point, MORE light-footedness and MORE palpability (compared to a "disdainful" quobuz stream). Do you know what I mean?

I still think and hope a new dac could be the nirvana-solution. But which one would manage the job to sound just like vinyl (99% would be ok...)?

Happy to hear your suggestions!
barrista0611

Showing 1 response by desktopguy

desktopguy
337 posts
 
I see people on this & other threads really trashing NOS DACs on technical grounds. I also see certain measurement-centric (vs listening-centric) audio sites trashing NOS DACs.

If you really want to get closer to vinyl/analog sound while staying in the digital realm, the surest way I know is to get yourself a solid NOS DAC. My 2nd NOS DAC is the MHDT Labs Orchid w/tube buffer circuit (which I rolled an older tube into). I don't know & don't care how it measures--I do know that it succeeds in shedding the known digital nasties better than any previous DAC in my system. In the side system I have a multibit DAC (Audio GD DAC-19) which, despite also getting trashed by reviewers, sounds quite decent to me.

Understand, though--NOS digital may lack the familiar digital nasties (edgy/insistent upper midrange & treble; overly "dry" acoustic; harmonically thin notes; impactful but tonally parched bass; on and on)--but it isn't equivalent to really good vinyl. Digital & vinyl simply don't sound the same. 

In fairness to digital, it's quite easy to use a peaky/pricey moving coil cartridge with the wrong phono preamp to arrive at sound nearly as nasty as trad/delta-sigma digital. Still different from digital, but nasty.
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