I have a balanced Pagoda and I heartily recommend it. Transparent, layered, dimensional, and textured.

I wouldn't ever add an extra box to the chain that isn't necessary. I imagine you'll get a difference in sound that's not necessarily an improvement. DDCs make sense to me if you have an output/input mismatch. Otherwise I wouldn't do it.

I am biased, as I own one. But I recommend the Pagoda. It has all of the attributes people love about R2R dacs, but it being possibly more transparent and extended than your typical R2R . It's more neutral and transparent than not, and not slow sounding as some R2R face can be. Especially if...

I hear no noise coming from my balanced Pagoda

I left my Pagoda on almost all of the time. I wouldn't recommend it though, as it just eats away at tube life. My Pagoda definitely needed time for the tubes to warm up before it sounded good though.

Ahhhh, got it. Thanks!

Hi. Would you mind going into more detail about the differences between the two? What are the differences between the bass and the soundstage? I currently have a D90 and I like it a lot. However, if you're some the RME sounds more accurate/neutral, I'm very curious, as that's what I'm looking...

I wouldn't say my Pagoda is bright. It's not laid back at all, but definitely not bright. I use a pair of Reflektor '75 6n23p silver shields in mine (with convertor), which have been by far the best tubes in it, that I've tried. A friend of mine bought one, as he heard mine and said it was very...

I really hope you get an opportunity to audition one, the Pagoda (balanced if possible) in particular, as it's the one I have. I'm incredibly curious to know how MHDT Labs dacs compare to some of the bigger boys.

What would you say are the things the Audio Note does better than the Pagoda?

Still using my balanced Pagoda. Still sounds great. I have a friend that listened to it, and he now purchased one to replace his Metrum (not sure which model) and his Soekris (their top model).

No problem. I have not had a DAC of equal quality in my system unfortunately. The Pagoda replaced a Scout Nixon Tubedac plus, that I loved, as my system was packed away for years before I pulled it back out and made some upgrades. I considered the Yggy though. But ultimately the Pagoda won out.

I will agree that using 6922 tubes has been an improvement with no negatives for me, and that the Pagoda is highly articulate.

I can't tell you how it compares to the Orchid, however I can say that it in no way has rolled off treble or wooly bass. It is a very revealing but neutral DAC, in my opinion. I wouldn't choose any of the other MHDT dacs, as they're been said to be less revealing than the Pagoda. Though many...

Thanks for that. It's a very interesting read. Before I upgrade to an entirely new dac, I want to see how far I can push the Pagoda. I've had some modifications done to it today I before approved it, but I'm really curious if better chips will give me more resolution and more refinement.

What differences did you hear?

Has anyone heard the Pagoda with J chips? I'm contemplating buying 4 J chips and having them put in. The cost of the chips would be $320, and then there would be labor. I'm wondering if it's worth the expense.

I'm an old man. My memory is bad. Thank you for reminding me.

I don't think we have a meet put together yet. Though once there is, I can't imagine there being an issue with someone not bringing anything.

My system is not yet ready for prime time (hopefully early summer). But as soon as it is, I'm always open to visitors bringing music.

I have to say that based on my limited listening with my Pagoda, that the GE 5670 it comes with, does indeed son's much better than an Amperex 7308 with adaptor. Now, who knows how much of an impact the adaptor has (not audiophile quality), but it really has me trying to find the most...

You know it's funny, on a MHDT Labs thread, the opposite was stated. What are the sonic differences between the tube families, in your opinion?

I need more info on the tube you're using please. And can you describe the improvement? Thanks!

Is that including the Pagoda? And if so, I'm wondering what's different that's making it so.

Thanks Guido..! I'm looking for all of the opinions on these tubes as possible. A 3D soundstage is very important to me. As are midrange and frequency extremes. I'm really wanting a transparent, information rich, and neutral a tube as possible. I don't want to feel as though information is...