i posed the following questions to scott, and his answers follow them
1. how does the tube dac compare to your other, non-tubed offerings?
Similar, but the tube buffer tightens/slams stuff up and the Chibi is a little
more wide open, but has high output z and is happy with 20k + loads.
> 2. how does the tubedac+ compare to the tubedac kit? and why is it
> you offer more minimal components in the kit? i see the actual
> differences in components, but i wonder about difference in sound.
> and can we upgrade any components in the kit?
You can add the components to the kit (phase normal and anti-sinc filter)
as options. Those are in the assembled TubeDac+
> it would be my inclination that your dacs would be very source
> sensitve, is this so? i would be pairing it with either an EMU
> 0404, or a chaintech av720 sound card. so bit perfect is assured,
> but jitter makes me nervous.
Will work fine off of any pc based feed that doesn't force 48k on you.
I've used Terratec/Lynx/RME and even M-audio cards with excellent results.
My current fave is an Asus Deluxe mobo with built in s/pdif.
Scott Nixon
it was his mention of the asus mobo i found most intriguing. i've emailed him to see if he could explain further. it was my impression that mobo spdif was lousy. it seems he disagrees. very interesting
note: he mentioned he will be altering (simplifying) the design of the dac KITS (not pre-assembled models), to make them easier to construct and more straight forward. unsure of ETA on those changes, but he mentioned he's very busy right now
i think scott's NOS dacs have somewhat fallen out of popularity. i'm very interested in building a tubedac kit myself. the asus motherboard option would bring my cost down significantly from needing to keep my emu 0404. these are the thoughts. however, i'll certainly keep my 0404 until i've been able to thouroughly a/b test between it and the tubedac. i may wait till scott redesigns the kit before i buy. i may even choose simply a board and to get the componenets elsewhere, which doesn't seem to be much of a task; especially considering i'd most likely want to upgrade the tube anyway.
1. how does the tube dac compare to your other, non-tubed offerings?
Similar, but the tube buffer tightens/slams stuff up and the Chibi is a little
more wide open, but has high output z and is happy with 20k + loads.
> 2. how does the tubedac+ compare to the tubedac kit? and why is it
> you offer more minimal components in the kit? i see the actual
> differences in components, but i wonder about difference in sound.
> and can we upgrade any components in the kit?
You can add the components to the kit (phase normal and anti-sinc filter)
as options. Those are in the assembled TubeDac+
> it would be my inclination that your dacs would be very source
> sensitve, is this so? i would be pairing it with either an EMU
> 0404, or a chaintech av720 sound card. so bit perfect is assured,
> but jitter makes me nervous.
Will work fine off of any pc based feed that doesn't force 48k on you.
I've used Terratec/Lynx/RME and even M-audio cards with excellent results.
My current fave is an Asus Deluxe mobo with built in s/pdif.
Scott Nixon
it was his mention of the asus mobo i found most intriguing. i've emailed him to see if he could explain further. it was my impression that mobo spdif was lousy. it seems he disagrees. very interesting
note: he mentioned he will be altering (simplifying) the design of the dac KITS (not pre-assembled models), to make them easier to construct and more straight forward. unsure of ETA on those changes, but he mentioned he's very busy right now
i think scott's NOS dacs have somewhat fallen out of popularity. i'm very interested in building a tubedac kit myself. the asus motherboard option would bring my cost down significantly from needing to keep my emu 0404. these are the thoughts. however, i'll certainly keep my 0404 until i've been able to thouroughly a/b test between it and the tubedac. i may wait till scott redesigns the kit before i buy. i may even choose simply a board and to get the componenets elsewhere, which doesn't seem to be much of a task; especially considering i'd most likely want to upgrade the tube anyway.
