Nothing changed out but the DAC. Had the GE. Have Millard installed. Have used the Orchid with tube pre (Herron). Now Have Luxman integrated. Have tried cables. It’s a good DAC for the money, Has glare though.
From an MHDT to an Audio Mirror, quick impressions
A Tubadour IV SE I ordered on 10/12 appeared today. It replaces a stock Orchid fed by an n130 Node with PD Creative power board and Sbooster LPS. I’ve just finished a half hour session, including 15 min of warm up. Right out of the box it’s showing off. Smooth, articulate and quick with much tighter bass. It keeps the musicality of the Orchid and improves on the pace.
The soundstage is deeper with a more “You are there” feel than the up front “They are here” feel of the Orchid. That’s all for now. For three times the cost I hoped for a noticeably better DAC. What I got was a major surprise and a huge upgrade. Really anxious to put some hours on it.
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@wlutke Got it. And, so it appears you’ve not tried the other factory prescribed tubes (Tesla 6CC42 or Western Electric WE396/2C51) for the dac many have found to gel well the Orchid and no glare. The standard non-triple mica GE 5670 tube in that dac can be bright or seem like glare in detailed systems. Not sure which Mullard you are referring to - - unless you’re running some kind of 6922 adapter which can lead to other voltage issues in that dac. I have 6 friends with MHDT Orchid dacs, none report issues with glare. Its a soft analog sounding Philips TDA1541 r2r ladder dac chip in there too. Pretty mild in my system and friends too. Something else going on there I would suspect. Best of luck. |
@wlutke hehe, unfortunately not totally the case. It’s one of many dacs in a stable each of us keep. I’m back down to 2 dacs and some other colleagues keep 4-5 around. Might be a sign each of these dacs offer something different to rotate in occasionally, or likely cases of hoarding the good ones, haha. Enjoy the AM dac in your stable :) |
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