Tube-based DACS: Positive? Negative? 

Been there, done it. Not a fan.  I liked the tube that sounded the most like my similar SS NOS DAC best so I just cut to the chase. 

George, I agree with your statement. The digital and analogue circuits would be responsible for that. The marketing dept. probably wrote the copy.

I offered the Border Patrol as an option with an interesting design.

Your correct it does use tube rectifiers in the dac

The BorderPatrol DAC uses a R2R DAC chip with no over-sampling and no digital filtering fed from a very sophisticated choke input, tube rectified power supply to produce one of the most natural, ’un-digital’ sounds it is possible to hear.

But to me it’s a very strange thing to say, that it’s the reason "why" it’s got "un-digital" sound.

Cheers George

Border Patrol makes a Dac which has been getting some good buzz. It is R2R NOS solid state with no digital filters. 
Tube rectification is used which presents some great options such as a smooth presentation with the ability to 
change the attack and decay by tube rolling.  

davkobza
Tube-based DACS: Positive? Negative?

Negative,
If you want to color the sound, do it with a tube pre or buffer, that way you can take them out if you feel you want no coloration.
Even better get a Schiit Freya pre that way you have 3 sounds in one "passive" "tube" or "solid state"

Cheers George

I had great sounds from the Aesthetix Romulus CD Player. I believe their Pandora is the identical DAC,,,

know also that there are other very effective methods of delivering a smooth, relaxed, seductive sound from digital without tubes

I think @jjss49 is alluding to a R2R NOS Dac which delivers these qualities. Tube or SS it delivers smooth organic sonics.
IMO, a tube stage design is worth looking for. 

use search bar above

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’mhdt’
’audio mirror tubador’
’black ice tube dac’

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know also that there are other very effective methods of delivering a smooth, relaxed, seductive sound from digital without tubes... 

As Hide45 stated there are several threads regarding tube DACs. I own the Audio Mirror Tubadour III DAC. I believe it would add much of that tube magic to a SS system. The Orchid is also highly thought of. I should add that I also use a tube preamp into a SS amp. 

I’ve had positive experiences with the Orchid and have read many interesting reflections here. (Found 13,560 results.) https://forum.audiogon.com/search/index?utf8=%E2%9C%93&query=tube+dac