Finally got mine after a month and a half of wait. Right of of the box I was impressed. Mine came with the EH 6922 tube.
Now keep in mind I have 5 Dacs laying around here to compare it to.
Emotiva XDA-2
Aune X1
Bel Canto 2.5
Keces DA-151 MKII
Schitt Bifrost
And honestly, the T1 is leaps and bounds above its price range. I am comparing it to a dac costing $2500, and 4 others that run about $350-400.
Here is what I noticed right out of the box. It is SMOOTH, without losing any detail. The soundstage is very wide. I am able to place instruments with ease. Bass was not very well defined though. I gave the 6922 tube about 3 hours last night before the tube rolling started.
Next went in an E88CC labelled Tungsram. This tube tightened up the bass, and seemed to widen the sound stage a tad. A little smoother than the 6922.
After that it was an Amperex 6DJ8. This tube is a midrange king! Guitars just come alive. But, its a little too soft on the top and bottom for my taste.
Then a Russian 6HN1(61N) went in. Very crisp tube I must say. Little too crisp, but it may need time to break in as this tube was brand new.
This may be one of those "chifi" wonders. A piece of equipment that performs well above its price range, by a large amount. But, of course, most "audiofools" will discount it because its made in china and its cheap. I paid $129.99 shipped for mine off Ebay.
All of this was on my main stereo system, not headphones. So I got my headphones out an hour ago. DT990 Premiums(250 ohm). This T1 drives these great! According to the specs, the headphone section looked a bit weak, but I am beginning to think there's a misprint somewhere. The power supply brick for this uses a dual rail(+15v and -15v). So how in the world does this have less power than the Aune X1 that uses a single 15v rail? So I decided to get my scope, tone generator, and meter out.
At 1khz sine wave, on a 32 ohm load, I measured 22 volts peak to peak before clipping. The specs of this thing say its only capable of 10v P-P. So what does this mean? Thats 15 watts at 32 ohms, 1.9 watts at 250 ohms, and 806mw at 600 ohms. This is MORE than enough to drive any headphone.
I will add my headphone review after a few hours of listening.....