Brubacca
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jun 5, 2014
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Can the headphone amp in the black ice dac drive the Aeon's properly or would I need either the new Vali 2 or Lyr 3?
Can the headphone amp in the black ice dac drive the Aeon's properly or would I need either the new Vali 2 or Lyr 3?
I have a lumin u1 mini feeding data via USB to a Jolida Glass DAC. oddly, the USB seems to sound better than coax.
the sound is tube and power dependent. I put a decent power cable with it and imagined SQ got better. I was feeding it with a Schiit EITR in chain that cleaned up the signal some, made the DAC sound better.
The stock Tung Sol- new production Russia, start off really brassy and challenging. When I got the DAC, I listened to the first few songs, was just ok, so I left it running for a day and 'everything' got better. The new issue tubes found fullness, lost the steel wool rasp and the sound stage opened up.
When I put some nice NOS matched telefunken, mullard, raytheon, RCA and GE, each changed the sound. All were nicer than new issue, by some amount. The volume/ gain dial allows you to find the right input level, depending on material and gear. I maybe liked the Telefunken the best so far but it's close.
This week I found some new stock mullards, so I gave them 36 hours of non-stop breakin. Similar to the Tung Sol, they started off harsh, then got better.
Today I got some GE Dgetter 12ax7 in the mail .. and they just walk all over the New Sensor Dullards, with deeper, rounder sound and more of it.
Shielded cables seem to work better but that could be more due to my preamp and other gear... Anyway, for the $, especially used, it's a flexible, articulate performer. Also, I was reading about an upgrade path.. if you go new, be sure to ask them about the Naked z-foil resistors and other fun whistle
Thanks for the info it is very well received. I am currently running Psvane tubes and really love the sound. Great to get some info on this Dac and glad you posted your experience with it. Interesting also is that there are options for upgrades. Thank You!
I have some incoming. I got the Psvanes because I have a few 6sn7s they make and like them a lot. It takes a little research when buying NOS tubes and I have been doing that.Find a closed matched pair of 12ax7 NOS GE, RCA, Raytheon.. I think you will hear a difference in sound. If you like that difference, then it's a win w little risk/ cost.