Good article. The part about musical hit it on the nail. I think for computer audio to sounds musical you will have to spend a fortune.

I did try that and it is not good. The dac is maverick tube magic version 1, it is bought for headphone amp but I tried its DAC. Not very good I guess. I also tried a Cambridge dac magic from a friend and did not see too much difference.

Interesting thread. Seems a lot of discussion about bit perfect but I think one thing that is important is jitter. When comparing a standalone cd player with built in DAC and a computer based playback system that consists of squeezebox 3 with external DAC, i find that CD player easily beat the...

Quote: Thanks. I guess what I'm not clear is: if D1 is the pre-amp, then it was feed into the integrated amp, which has its own pre-amp stage. So there are two pre-amp in the chain ?   On the other hand, if I push the direct button, the volume control is by-passed which means that the...

Question: I currently use D1 as DAC for a 2 channel speaker system, and connection is like: squeezebox -> D1 -> integrated amp. I push down the "direct" button and use my integrated amp to control volume. Is this the correct way to use D1 as DAC ? I assume I can still take advantage of tube...

It's been a while since I visited here last time. Now I just got some new speakers and amp and used D1 as DAC. Definitely sounds better than the squeezebox DAC.   Did the opamp rolling for HP output a while back and now I just ordered LM4562 for the DAC output. Will try the tube rolling as well.

Thanks, Mambosenior. That brings me one step closer to a tube amp.

Quote: Originally Posted by Mambosenior ... With headphones, it's an eminently worthy partner to my DV 3322 (prefer the DV to the D1 for headphone output) and HD-800. An also very fine-sounding Paradisea 3 (WE tube) has gotten very little attention, so little that I am pondering selling...

Quote: Originally Posted by ihrm Has anyone here from Canada ordered one of these? Just wondered what kind of shipping fees you paid other than the $20 shipping. From a quick google I've found that DHL isnt too bad with the brokerage fees and such but I just want to make sure...

muad: thanks for posting your initial impressions. once you get it burned in and have a chance to try the headphone output, please let us know.

muad: please post a comparison of FUN with D1 if you have a chance. Thanks.

Mambosenior: main thread is here: http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f5/mav...4/index88.html I did measure the resistance of stock R54/R55 on my D1, which according to Ryan has already been reduced. It's 15k ohm. Still a little high for my like. After changing it to 4.75k, I find it's more...

Thanks, Mambosenior. Does not have a good grasp about sound stage yet but I'm curious how my HD650 will sound with a tube amp. Will be interested in your results about using D1 as preamp, headphone amp and DAC. One question: how does the tube in D1 interact with the tube in DV3322 ? BTW, I...

Mambosenior: your setup is quite interesting. It appears that you use D1 as a pre-amp and use Trend for DAC ? Also, I assume you used the tube output of D1 to connect to DV3322 ? Any comparison between the D1 headphone amp vs. DV3322 output ? Thanks

Thanks for the suggestions. Just ordered a ticket to a classical music concert here in Ottawa. It's been a while since I attended a live performance. Looking forward to it.