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Mhdt Havana, Calyx , Metrum Octave for my setup ?

Hello people. As my Audiolab 8000cd player (2007) finally stopped working after starting to behave weird for some time, I'm now looking for a dac which fits nicely into my system. I have Klipsch Forte 2's and a Primaluna Dialogue 2 amp. Iḿ looking for a musical warm smooth organic sound with no added highs, harsness, grain. Gear with A focus on detail or extended highs my set highlights it and is not what I want.
After reading lots of great reviews about the Havana dac it sounded that with the Havana I could have found an excellent matching dac, however also thanks to this forum I now read even better reviews (although not as many), of the Calyx and Metrum Octave dacs also from (former)Havana users.

I 'm wondering if through the horns of the Fortes the newer Calyx and Octave dacs with increased detail /insight will shift the tone from musical warm smooth organic music flow to more attention to details instead. Also how are these dacs different in tone with eachother, e.g. which is the warmest smoothest, organic, lightest, clearest etc?
Of course I don t want to miss something in case the increased detail / insight is working out very positive. Any experience, advice, ideas ?
delta_hf

Showing 1 response by meiwan

meiwan
399 posts
 
I used to own the Calyx dac, only sold it because I needed toslink. It's a wonderful dac, extremely open, airy and neutral, but I wouldn't call it warm and organic. If you are using tubes (as I was), it's a great match. However if you are looking for some flavour, you might stick with a tube dac. The EE minimax is very nice in that regard. I have no experience with the other dacs you mention.
Have the w4s dac 2 now. I'd say warmer than the Calyx.
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