I am getting similar noise/hum from my Pagoda. The noise becomes noticeable when I turn to 12pm position on my amp, and gets louder when volume is up. It does not seem to go down when music plays. I tried other sources (e.g. Macbook earphone output) and they're quiet in terms of floor noise...

Hi Marcelo, Here's is my tube rolling experience with Pagoda SE: 1) I got these tubes when I bought a used Pagoda: Bendix 2C51 Tube Russian OTK 6n3p tube Tesla 6cc42 pinched waist tube GE5670 You can find feedback in this thread for above tubes. To my ear, the Tesla is so much better than...

Did you have a chance to compare Optical/Toslink (directly from home PC to DAC) vs USB->S/PDIF via EItr? I am quite happy with my current setup: Mac Mini (Toslink) -> Pagoda -> Amp, I hear more details than through USB connection. Not sure how it will improve by a converter.

I read this from their website: What the hell? What if I want optical? If you want a crappy optical output that has jitter problems like no tomorrow and likely cannot do 24/192 reliably, you’re free to find a different USB to SPDIF converter that offers optical output. Why optical output is...

Why stick with USB? I heard it's not best for audio? I have compared Toslink and USB on Pagoda. Toslink is far better.

MHDT customer service is just superb. They replied my email within minutes, and really back up their products.   Last week I had some problem with left channel on my Pagoda, after exchanging several emails with Jiun, he helped me identify the issue, and sent me a new board within a week...

According to Luckbad's review, rolling tubes has more influence to Altantis than Pagoda. I don't have an Altantis to compare, but I feel different tubes still make very noticeable change to Pagoda's sound.

These two tubes are about same price right (Genalex Gold Lion ecc88 & Bendix 2c51)? So... what's the point of getting adaptor?   ;-)

I sent an email to Mhdt (replies below). Seems that they have not tried 6922 in their DACs.   ==============   Hi,   The tube buffer stage of 5670 which used in our DACs are supplied with -17 ~ +17V. This is a very low voltage condition and that's why we choose 5670.   6922 is also a...

Thanks Phil! I bet you'll be pretty busy this weekend, please enjoy it :-)   Looking forward for your list of "best tubes for Pagoda", maybe also a list of "best bang of buck tubes" as well, for those who can't afford CCA.

Phil, do you have Reflektor tube in your collection?   On searching 6922 tubes, I found this review giving "Reflektor Holy Grail '75 6N23P SWGP Silver Shields" very high rating, over CCA & CV2492:   http://www.head-fi.org/t/761078/6922-tube-review-17-top-6922-6n23p-e88cc-cca-7308-e188cc-tubes

Hi Phil,   Thanks for your reply. Now I almost got the whole picture :-)   Inline with what you have experienced, CCa is one of the best 6922 tubes:   http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/tubes-valves/124247-differences-between-nos-tesla-e88cc.html   "At higher level amplifier (DAC output)...

Thank you Phil. This is a great writeup.   I have a Pagoda SE, and tried 3 tubes you mentioned: Stock 5670, Bendix 2c51, and Tesla 6cc42. Results are just as you described: 5670 is OK (sometimes I feel it's no better than MBP onboard DAC), Bendix is better but too bright & lack detail, while...

Did you ship back the old board? The MHDT gang should have some idea, if this happens too often to Pagoda.

I like the Tesla pinched waist tube most on Pagoda - it brings more details & clarity to the sound, compared to some others. Vocals are more "real".       Quote:

Ericr, How do you like MB, MHDT, and Holo Spring?

How do I tell the "original" rate of audio? I play some online audio files, which are said to be 320kbps.    Once I choose a rate to output to the DAC, the NOS DAC will not do up-sampling/oversampling, while an OS DAC will do upsampling?   Thanks

I have a question:   When I connect DAC to my Mac, I saw there are several options: 16/24/32 bit, and sample rate from 44k up to 384k. Of course I tried 384k and it did not work (no sound), but 192k seems to work fine (and sound better than 44k), as well as 24/32 bit.   Since this DAC claims...

Thanks for the info. The dddac and ankits 3.1 are actually in $2000 range. I have read some reviews saying Audio-gd Master 7 is slightly better than these 2. Soekris DAC-1011 may have lowest cost, but it requires some diy experience to build. So there seems no surprise or miracle here - we...

If you have it on all the time but don't feed it with audio signal, does that count as burn-in time? That way 1 month will be good enough?

For DAC19/NOS19, USB is 384k, while Coaxial and Optical are 96k. But from feedback in this thread, Coaxial and Optical sound better than USB?   So it makes sense to get I2S-HDMI, and use SU-1 to get best sound? Otherwise use Coaxial and Optical, still better than USB (even with Amanero...

I am hesitating between DAC19 and NOS19. I thought NOS19 is more expensive so it *should* sound better. It might not be the case. Thanks for your feedback.

I am not sure how this mod works, but seems like once mod is done, an NOS19 can't run in OS mode anymore?   Some high end brand, e.g. Metrum, Audio Note, only offer NOS DAC. Why? Not only NOS DACs cost more to build, they must also sound good to make the sale.

Thanks for explain. I have never heard NOS sound, so can't tell. I hope someone can describe how it sounds compared to OS, and what kind of music NOS/OS is suited for?

Interesting... I wonder if there is anyone heard both and can compare them. From what I read from this forum, NOS 19 should sound better than DAC19 running in NOS mode.   Is the wire upgrade to NOS 19 easy to do? There is $80 difference between the 2 models, it seems the upgrade requires new...