[evil-zen]

Currently i am thinking of upgrading my source and i am looking towards the Tubedac kit at $200 together with a power supply which might add up to $350-400 including labour.

Now a used audio note dac zero pops up for roughly the same price. I believe both are using the same non upsampling technology and uses tubes in the output stage. Both will be used with a NEC 602 transport.

Now which one would you go for? If not, are there any other DAC you recommend? I prefer a tube based DAC as i am quite captivated by the tube sound.

My system:
Denon DCD 835-> Gilmore V2-> Beyer 880 or etys 4s.

 

[Tomcat]

Quote:

Originally posted by evil-zen I believe both are using the same non upsampling technology (...)

evil-zen,

That's not correct. The Audio Note Zero DAC uses a conventional 24bit/96kHz delta-sigma oversampling DAC chip by Burr Brown. Only the Audio Note DACs with the designation "1x" do not use oversampling (that's to say: any of the more expensive AN DACs). All of those non-oversampling AN DACs use the "Analogue Devices AD 1865" which is an 18 bit chip.

However, the AN Zero DAC has a 6111WA tube output stage. If you want to use the Zero DAC, make sure that the input impedance of your preamp or your headphone amplifier is at least 47 kOhm, or you will have a loss of bass. The 6111WA stage has a fairly high output impedance, about 3 kOhms.

 

[Carlos3]

Also keep in mind that the 6111WA triode in the Zero DAC (and One.1x DAC) is soldered to the PCB. No tuberolling, and if the tube ever fails it has to go back to Audio Note for replacement. This is one of the reasons I picked the Nixon TubeDac over the Audio Note One.1x DAC.

I wouldn't buy an AN unless I could afford at least a 2.1x, or find a used 1.1x DAC.

 

[minya]

If you do get the TubeDAC, please do post your thoughts on it. I'm curious to hear it myself.

- Chris

 

[Tomcat]

Quote:

Originally posted by Carlos3 Also keep in mind that the 6111WA triode in the Zero DAC (and One.1x DAC) is soldered to the PCB. No tuberolling, and if the tube ever fails it has to go back to Audio Note for replacement.

Carlos,

That's right, of course. But one should mention that the 6111WA is a sub-miniature tube and has a life expectancy of 100,000 hours. That's more than 11 years of constant operation. There is a One.1x DAC in my integrated CDP, an Audio Note CD 3.1x (all those numbers are utterly confusing), and I have the CDP switched on 24/7 (I don't spin a disc, I just never turn it off). The reason is that there are Blackgate capacitors in it, and they need about 1000 hours of warm-up (not break-in, simply warm-up) to sound their best.

 

[evil-zen]

is there an issue with phase inversion of the tubedac coupled with headphones?