[s1rrah]

Quote:

Can someone describe how the Havana sounds with classical musical, especially with large orchestra and symphonic works?
I'm very very tempted by this dac, being a Valab owner.
I like the signature of the Valab, but with large orchestral works it shows some limits: distortion and congested soundstage.
I'm wondering if that is something typical of NOS dacs, or is an issue with the Valab implementation.

I can't really comment re: Valab. Sorry.
 
I do happen to listen to classical (orchestral/chamber/small room/big venue/opera/etc) quite a bit. I'm also, while I'm at it, a huge fan of personally visiting live performances of said music genre's here in Houston.
 
That said, ... I find nothing but good things in regards to the Havana's reproduction of such works.
 
True. I listen to Indie, Alt Country, Sludge metal, Post Punk and a bunch of other more less defined genres ... but Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, Handel, Schubert, Grossman, Mendelson, Brahms, YO YO ma, Perlman, Schumann, Brainin, etc ... *all* sound disgustingly good out of the Havana DAC. I have no complaints. What's more? Said sorts of music sound organic and real ... not only spacious and true to any given recording ... but *natural* ... be it "woody" ... "brassy" ... "tinny" or "harmonic" ...; it sounds like a live performance. I have especially noted how glorious major choral works (Jesu Meine Freude, etc.) sound through the Havana. 
 
But I digress ... 
 
Buy one. If you don't like it (the Havana), you won't have any problem selling it for near it's asking price either here or on Audiogon.
 
Buene Suerte!
 
.s1rrah. 

 

[OutdoorXplorer]

I can only tell that I loved my modified Havana.... It was just a simple mod of the output capacitors and fuse..

 

[realmassy]

Quote:

I can only tell that I loved my modified Havana.... It was just a simple mod of the output capacitors and fuse..

Which kind of mod, if I may ask you? Was there something defective?

 

[OutdoorXplorer]

These are the enhancements made to the Havana:
 
* HiFi Tuning Slow 400mA small Fuse for MHDT Havana
* V-Cap OIMP 2.0uF/250VDC for MHDT Havana
 
The units were perfectly in great working conditions before the mod.
 
Quote:

Which kind of mod, if I may ask you? Was there something defective?

 

[realmassy]

Cheers OutdoorXplorer!
I guess V-Cap replacement needed some kind of soldering, didn't it?

 

[OutdoorXplorer]

Yup, just desolder the stock caps and solder the upgraded caps.
Quote:

Cheers OutdoorXplorer!
I guess V-Cap replacement needed some kind of soldering, didn't it?

 

[mafaldich]

 
MHDT announced a balanced version of Havana. Just found this on their site.
 
http://dhost.info/mhdtlab/havana%20balanced.htm
 
$1145
 

 

[jjinh]

Quote:

 
MHDT announced a balanced version of Havana. Just found this on their site.
 
http://dhost.info/mhdtlab/havana%20balanced.htm
 
$1145
 

Change of case colour too!

 

[niamex]

Funny but they have replaced some caps /with silver mica/ and the resistors around the tubes exactly as in our mods with David of dms-audio.com ? Seems we were on the right side

You better follow up !

 

[niamex]

Quote:

 In the next month i'm planing to upgrade my Havana with best parts available on the market. I want to replace all electrolytic caps with BlackGates (very rare and expesnsive, unfortunately), all film caps (thinking about Jupiter HT for output, and mundorf gold/silver/oil for input - also very expensive) and some resistors (on critical locations), plus a better fuse (furutech or hi-fi tunning) and maybe a teflon tube socket

, all of this will rise the price of Havana for about 50%
Will see how it turns out.

Please share some impressions in case you have realized your ambitious project, I am still slowly but surely replacing the stock caps and resistors - one at a time - for the time being still improving the sound. Would go same way as you have described even trying to see what happens if I separate the PS from the mainboard and install another toroidal transformer for separation of the analog from digital section ?
Cheers,
Ignat

 

[realmassy]

I finally got the Havana!
I've found it used here in Europe, at a good price. Finger crossed
I've been thinking about the Havana and the Satch dac for a few months, and I'll probably build the Satch anyway, but I was so interested in trying the Havana that I couldn't pass on this.
 
I'm now going to read the 71 pages of this thread 

 

[s1rrah]

Quote:

I finally got the Havana!
I've found it used here in Europe, at a good price. Finger crossed
I've been thinking about the Havana and the Satch dac for a few months, and I'll probably build the Satch anyway, but I was so interested in trying the Havana that I couldn't pass on this.
 
I'm now going to read the 71 pages of this thread 

Congrats ... post some thoughts once you've acquainted yourself with it.
 
 

 

[realmassy]

Quote:

Congrats ... post some thoughts once you've acquainted yourself with it.
 
 

I will!
Unfortunately I will get it on January as I'm going on holiday now...that's why I crossing my fingers..I hope everything will be fine with the transaction.
And you s1rrah...you're one of those to blame for my purchase (just kidding) Your thoughts and impressions about this dac have been so convincing, especially when I aked about classical music.
 
And I've noticed that many of the users that posted their impressions in this thred are still using this dac, and they're still listing it in their signature. This is something reassuring.
 

 

[Wood]

Let us know how your Halide Bridge benefits it too.
 
And have nice holiday

 

[realmassy]

I sold the Halide a few months ago (damn...I have to update my profile): I will use a Squeezebox Touch and a Sonos.
Sometimes I miss that nice converter, but I don't want to use a computer as source.