MHDT Paradisea(+) Owners Club - Page 3

I have been using a Paradisea+ and a Benchmark Dac1pre for a few months now. They are both great dacs. DAC1pre is more transparent but the difference is rather small. I am also surprised to find how similar these two units sound in my system-considering one has a tube output and the other is often criticized for being sterile and non musical.

If Havana is a better sounding "Paradisea" it will be money well spend even if it costs twice as much.

-Paul

I haven't heard the Paradisea, but my Havana definately sounds better than my Benchmark DAC1 USB in every way.

Some people think the Paradisea sounds better than the DAC1 anyway.
The Havana might be an even bigger bargin than the Paradisea. I would be very interested in hearing it- it seems like the only way to do that is to buy one.

-Paul

i sold my paradisea(non-usb) to s1rrah. never thought that dac had him motivated about dacs that much...

paradisea was indeed a very special, musical dac. after running sony xa3 cdp for so many years, after i inserted a paradisea in the path...man, the nht 1.5 speakers had never sound so musical! the paradisea dac just blew the dac inside sony xa3es out of the water. i was indeed surprised...

for tube dacs, i had tried monarchy m24(which has great reviews) and while it was a very good dac i still prefered the paradisea better, it had better details and just more musical.

the one thing that i didn't like about the paradisea was the digital input selector switch was on the back(minor issue).

previous dacs i had tried while paradisea was in my position were: bel canto dac2, benchmark dac1, lavry da10 and the venerable audio research dac5. all were great dacs...one i liked least among them was benchmark dac1, it was so analytical that it became a little edgy at times. from what i could remember, bel canto dac2 and paradisea excelled in drawing you into listening to music. if you want accuracy, as i perceived it, lavry dac10 and audio research dac5(this is a dac from '96) are it. neutral is the word. if u want a dac to seduce get a paradisea or bel canto dac2.

now, someone has to get the havana and compare it to paradisea...

oh, after i sold paradisea i got a stello da100 signature...it is a very good dac. very details and punchy(misture of lavry da10 and benchmark dac1 sound), but still as not as musical as a paradisea or bel canto dac2.

Impressions on Paradisea

So I received the Paradisea quite a while ago now and have had a good chance to listen to it paired with my Cayin HA-1A amp using my headphile HF-1. I was initially excited about the new warm, lush sound but after a while I felt it was too much and I was losing out on a lot of detail...but one of the great things about the HA-1A is it's versatility: switching to ultralinear mode, the sound was immediately more dynamic and more detailed yet still retaining the extra warmth from the Paradisea.

I had this combination for a while but then I was lucky enough to happen upon a headamp GS-1 sold locally for a decent price. I decided I couldn't pass this opportunity up and so after emptying my bank account I took the GS-1 home. The first conclusion is that the combination with the Paradisea to me is almost perfect. It is now far more detailed than the combination with the HA-1A yet retains all the warmth I had before. The bass is a lot deeper and punchier as well, I think that the bass qualities of the GS-1 and the paradisea+ really mesh well.

Then, I decided to roll a 1970s RCA5670 in to replace the orginal GE5670. This change brought a very nice smoothness to the combination that I felt improved the sound noticeably.


The next part of the story is:.......I just managed to win a NOS Tesla 6CC42 tube...these are recommended on the Mhdt website but they seem pretty rare...

Hopefully I will receive them in a week and I can try it out with the Paradisea.

XXII: Did you get the Tesla tube yet? I'm interested in how that worked for you. I'm very jealous of your GS-1 also. I have that on my short list of amps. I have discussed the Paradisea/GS1 combination with another Head-Fi'er, and he is also very happy with it.

I am shopping for tubes right now, but it is very confusing. I have learned enough to know that you don't always get what is advertised. I am hesitant to pull the trigger on a tube until I become a little more educated about them. I would like to find a WE396A D-getter 1950's or early 60's (per the MHDT "first-class" listing). I see some WE396A tubes for sale, but it is difficult to know if these are the right version (some say 2C51, some don't). I don't have a tube tester either, so I don't know how to tell if I am getting a good NOS tube or a half-dead used one.

Not yet! I will definitely post some impressions when I get them..

Has anyone tried the AD806 ? Others have said it's more detail, with the top not harsh. If anything the paradisea might benefit from the more detail and airy mod to bring it close to Havana...(I have both)

diyAudio Forums - AD8066 vs. LM4562

Audio Reviews: Flavors of Audio Op-Amps

That sounds very interesting! I might give that a try. Where's a good place to buy opamps online?

The consensus in the websites you linked to seem to be that the AD8066 is bassy. I'm not sure if that would complement the paradisea well since it is already quite bassy...

OH man, so which would fit Paradisea+?
And is it just taking out the old one and plugging it in?

Thanks for the info.

OPA2228P-ND OPA2228P IC DUAL PRECISION OPAMP 8-DIP Tube
OPA2228PA-ND OPA2228PA IC DUAL PRECISION OPAMP 8-DIP Tube
OPA2228U-ND OPA2228U IC DUAL PRECISION OPAMP 8-SOIC Tube
OPA2228UA-ND OPA2228UA IC DUAL PRECISION OPAMP 8-SOIC Tube

I was wondering the exact same thing!