Which DACs are known to be sweet/rich/relaxed?

I use a Bespoke Built Valve Power Supply Regulated/ Valve Output DAC which has undergone Tube Rolling on the Output Valves. It performs in a manner that I am quite impressed with, but I do have a limited experience in such matters.

I have kept my 'ear to the ground' in relation to affordable Valve DAC's that are seeming to be worthy of being looked into further.     

I think the DAC in the Link is worthy of a consideration, this is a Brand and Model not too commonly seen but is very well respected by those who have been introduced to it.

Sirius DAC | Veridian Utopia

Probably more accurate than sweet but said to be superb: EMM DA2 v2 ! https://www.emmlabs.com/da2v2.php

EMM DAC

I want their workingman’s Meitner MA2 ... "only" $10k. Has a streamer (Roon ready) and digital volume control.

patrickdowns,

I think the EMM retails somewhere in the neighborhood of $20,000?

FYI: MA2 now replaced by MA3 at list of $10,500.

@robert1976 After skimming through all the responses thus far I reread your original post. Seems you are happy with the sound quality of your current componentry on the majority of musical content, excepting poorly recorded/mastered rock (ie RHCP). Is that still the issue at hand?.

If so, my take is that you have excellent components (including the Tambaqui) and competent analog cabling/power cords. Most if not all changes you could make will improve some things but will involve tradeoffs in other aspects of sound character that may not be to your preference. This is tricky and gets expensive fast, especially as changing a key component such as a DAC can send you into the spiral of major cabling and even component changes to accommodate.

Although I suspect that there is no truly effective remedy for poor sound quality of a recording, you may be able to improve its tolerability without making major changes. I suggest that you contact The Cable Company or another authorized Synergistic Research dealer and request a risk free trial of a Synergistic Research Galileo SX Ethernet cable. This is my preferred Ethernet cable after testing several, but that is not my point. The unique thing about the SR products is that they provide two “tuning bullets” that are easily swapped out (unplug and replug).to change the sound character from a detailed, high resolution sound (the silver bullet) to a warmer, more forgiving sound (the gold bullet). I use this feature often to adjust for program material sound quality variances or even to compensate for varying AC quality at different times of the day. The gold bullet may well make the RHCP and other poor rock recordings (more) tolerable to you while allowing you to easily swap to the silver bullet for other listening if you prefer. It not, just return the loaner cable.

@dlcockrum Thanks for your input. A few posts ago I elaborated on how I dragged my system from the living room to my 13ft x 20ft bedroom. This room is very well padded and it's RT60 is only a third of my living room. This made ALL the difference. All problems were gone.

So, my echo-y living room is the culprit. I shouldn't be looking at new gear, but try to bring down the RT60 in my living room. Which is what I'm doing now :)