[Audiogalore]

  It's not as 'lush' as one might expect.  It's actually pretty clean sounding DAC.  I had a Lampi level 4 gen 4 and THAT was lush...  Like the forest moon of Endor...  That was a DAC that I really liked, just not all the time.  It would make a good second DAC.
 
The 5.1 is more smooth than lush (if that makes any sense).  It is a smooth sounding DAC but not overly warm or dense.

Lust is good depending on your setup, in my case no. I already have allot of tubes and do not need that extra lust. Smooth is a good thing that determine if garbage in garbage out get more easily exposed! I will probably lean towards the 5.1 because of my setup. Is the 5.1 tube depended; if so what tubes work best? 

 

[astrostar59]

  It's not as 'lush' as one might expect.  It's actually pretty clean sounding DAC.  I had a Lampi level 4 gen 4 and THAT was lush...  Like the forest moon of Endor...  That was a DAC that I really liked, just not all the time.  It would make a good second DAC.
 
The 5.1 is more smooth than lush (if that makes any sense).  It is a smooth sounding DAC but not overly warm or dense.

I haven't heard the new 5.1 kit yet, but I have owned the 3.1 kit and the 4.1 kit. The 4.1 I modded quite a lot over a period of 18 months and it was great fun. TBH these kit DACs are quite unique in that aspect and can be upgraded and tailored to your system by capacitor choice and tubes plus other part choices.
 
I would say the kit DACs are more transparent than the Audio Note UK products in my experience, possibly meaning they fit better into a non Audio Note system. There is something great going on with a combination of the AD-1865 chip as non oversampling or filtering and the use of tubes, especially in the line stage. IMO a lot of DACs have a simple / poorly designed line stage almost as a second thought, which is bizarre to me as it massively affects the final sound of the DAC.

 

[bigfatpaulie]

  Lust is good depending on your setup, in my case no. I already have allot of tubes and do not need that extra lust. Smooth is a good thing that determine if garbage in garbage out get more easily exposed! I will probably lean towards the 5.1 because of my setup. Is the 5.1 tube depended; if so what tubes work best? 

 
 
Lushness is also a matter of taste.  Some people like very fast, sharp precise sounding gear, others like very fluid, meaty and romantic stuff.  No right or wrong in my eyes; to each their own!
 
So the kit comes with 4 tubes: a 12AU7, ECC99 and two rectifiers.  One is crummy $10 tube for burn in.  The other is a Psvane WE274B replica which is a very nice option.  I did not roll anything in the kit (I do have an EML 5u4g and U52 on hand) so I can't comment on the impact rolling any of these has.  But even if I did - why would I take all the fun out of it for you
 
My point is, the kit comes reasonably well equipped as far as glass goes - Brian did not skimp on the rectifier.  
 
 

  I haven't heard the new 5.1 kit yet, but I have owned the 3.1 kit and the 4.1 kit. The 4.1 I modded quite a lot over a period of 18 months and it was great fun. TBH these kit DACs are quite unique in that aspect and can be upgraded and tailored to your system by capacitor choice and tubes plus other part choices.
 
I would say the kit DACs are more transparent than the Audio Note UK products in my experience, possibly meaning they fit better into a non Audio Note system. There is something great going on with a combination of the AD-1865 chip as non oversampling or filtering and the use of tubes, especially in the line stage. IMO a lot of DACs have a simple / poorly designed line stage almost as a second thought, which is bizarre to me as it massively affects the final sound of the DAC.

 
I tend to agree, but I have pretty limited experience with actual AudioNote DAC's so take that for what it's worth.  I've heard them numerous times but never in my system so it's hard to tell (for me) what any individual part is doing in a sea of unknown.
 
I would also agree with what Astrostar is saying re: line stages.    

 

[Audiogalore]

   
 
Lushness is also a matter of taste.  Some people like very fast, sharp precise sounding gear, others like very fluid, meaty and romantic stuff.  No right or wrong in my eyes; to each their own!
 
So the kit comes with 4 tubes: a 12AU7, ECC99 and two rectifiers.  One is crummy $10 tube for burn in.  The other is a Psvane WE274B replica which is a very nice option.  I did not roll anything in the kit (I do have an EML 5u4g and U52 on hand) so I can't comment on the impact rolling any of these has.  But even if I did - why would I take all the fun out of it for you
 
My point is, the kit comes reasonably well equipped as far as glass goes - Brian did not skimp on the rectifier.  
 
 
 
I tend to agree, but I have pretty limited experience with actual AudioNote DAC's so take that for what it's worth.  I've heard them numerous times but never in my system so it's hard to tell (for me) what any individual part is doing in a sea of unknown.
 
I would also agree with what Astrostar is saying re: line stages.    

True lushness is a matter of taste and that slow down effect can be quite intriguing depending on genre of music. I listen to traditional Jazz, blues and classical so the warmest is nice. Thank you for your tube analysis and do agree use what is sent for burn in before experimenting. The whole experience is to understand the sound signature before tube rolling which should be the last stage. I do like the EML Mesh 274 works well with my Woo WA5. Big question now do I purchase the kit or have it assembled and quite frankly being technically inclined I think it would be more satisfaction to build my own!
 
Enjoy music! 

 

[rebbi]

Hey, Guys,
I was alerted to this thread by Brian Smith of ANK. 
For anyone who's interested, I have an audio blog which started a couple of years ago with my blogging the build of my Audio Note Kits Kit 1 single-ended 300B integrated amp. The front page of the blog is here and the coverage of the Kit 1 build begins here. 
Enjoy!

 

[bigfatpaulie]

  True lushness is a matter of taste and that slow down effect can be quite intriguing depending on genre of music. I listen to traditional Jazz, blues and classical so the warmest is nice. Thank you for your tube analysis and do agree use what is sent for burn in before experimenting. The whole experience is to understand the sound signature before tube rolling which should be the last stage. I do like the EML Mesh 274 works well with my Woo WA5. Big question now do I purchase the kit or have it assembled and quite frankly being technically inclined I think it would be more satisfaction to build my own!
 
Enjoy music! 

 
Assembling/buying pre-built...  After having built the kit personally, if you are interested my opinion, let me know via PM and we can discuss further. 

 

[comzee]

So is this DAC have that "NOS sound" to it. I know it is NOS, but does it maintain that signature sound other NOS DACs have?

It seems it might, from their own advertisement "The results – detail, smoothness and no listening fatigue."
That sentence is odd to me, because smooth is the opposite of detail in my mind, music is not inherently "smooth" or "harsh" it is what it is based on the specific recording. Saying a DAC is inherently "smooth" seems like they're just saying it has low resolution.

I've never liked other NOS dacs because of this, smoothness smears raw resolution, hiding musical nuances.

Although, I REALLY want to invest in a tube output stage TOTL dac, which this is.

Anybody have thoughts specifically on the resolution of this dac, as it pertains to smoothness and other NOS dacs?

 

[thinker]

So is this DAC have that "NOS sound" to it. I know it is NOS, but does it maintain that signature sound other NOS DACs have?

It seems it might, from their own advertisement "The results – detail, smoothness and no listening fatigue."
That sentence is odd to me, because smooth is the opposite of detail in my mind, music is not inherently "smooth" or "harsh" it is what it is based on the specific recording. Saying a DAC is inherently "smooth" seems like they're just saying it has low resolution.

I've never liked other NOS dacs because of this, smoothness smears raw resolution, hiding musical nuances.

Although, I REALLY want to invest in a tube output stage TOTL dac, which this is.

Anybody have thoughts specifically on the resolution of this dac, as it pertains to smoothness and other NOS dacs?

I recently bought nos dac from Abbas audio, resolution and musicality is best i have heard from any dac,nothing comes even close to it,the dac has a tube clock on board
Had a longer listen to Dave recently didn't like it.Some pictures of Abbas audio products here and you can even buy a usb converter with tube clock.