Lite DAC-60 review

[regal]

This is a very good DAC for the price. After a bad experience with the DAC-AH, I was hesitant to buy another Lite product. There is no excuse for a company to spec the wrong size I/V resistor and put a product on the market with a clipping output.

Well they got this one right. The sound is organic, smooth and musical. The midrange in particular is involving and life-like. Bass clarity is much better than my highly regarded Audio Alchemy DAC. The DAC-60 tromps the competition of newer DAC's I have tried like the PS Audio DLIII, the Zhalou, the USB 0404, and the Benchmark DAC1. The common them with all these new DAC's is a harshness in the upper midrange a real contrast to the liquid midrange with the DAC-60 and my old AA DAC.

I don't think it is the tubes in the DAC-60. The issue with the new DAC's I truly believe is the Sigma Delta chips. In my opinion they just aren't as musical as the PCM1704 (Dac-60) or the AD1862 (Audio Alchemy.) Obviously I haven't heard every S-D implementation and there may be a product that is successful with the newer chips.

One of the most respected audio designers in the world pointed me in the PCM1704 direction. He said that it was the best DAC chip ever made.

Now the DAC-60 has room for improvement.

1. It has a passive I/V. The PCM1704 does best with a low impedance load. I haven't looked under the hood but if there is a place I can tie in a Sowter transformer I will and then lower the I/V resistance.

2. The tubes are lower quality russians. I ordered a pair of Phillips 6922's for $30.

3. It is said that adding a cathode by-pass capacitor improves thing ( like was done with the similar Monarchy DAC.) I am tempted to try this but it could increase the gain too much.

4. The output capacitors are just film boxes. I have a pair of Sprague motor run P-I-O capacitors I can try. But I like this DAC enough to splurge on Mundorf Silver-I-O's.

All in all though I think this DAC is an amazing buy for the price in stock form.

 

[curiousmuffin]

hi guys sorry to bring back up such an old thread but i also have a dac 60 that i consider to be the prodigy of my system... and also most expensive since i bought the modded version from pacific valve. im wanting to know how much more improvement i'll be getting by upgrading the tubes to amperex 6922 gold pins, arguably the best of its kind. since the tubes are only used in the buffer stage, as to my knowledge, to color the sound instead of say a full utilization in a tube amp type of circuitry, i'd like to know if the sq increase would be significant enough to justify $120 i'll be putting into the tubes. i already have some nos Philips in there and as i remember switching to them from the russian tubes weren't that noticeable of a change.

 

[regal]

I had a Dac-60 and the tubes are an amplification stage and different tubes impart totally different sound. Also look at lowering the I/V resistor and bypassing the cathodes with caps. See my thread on audiocircle.