[dreamweapon]

cool. i just want a tube that can balance out the brightness a little on my k702's. is replacing the tube pretty simple? any precautions before i do other then turning the power off completely?

 

[Jon L]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TJHUB /img/forum/go_quote.gif All three opamps must be replaced for the SE outs. You can contact Parts Connexion as well. I've purchased all of my upgraded components from them.

So that would mean this DAC follows the regrettable trend of simply sticking a tube buffer after the op-amps do all the actual amplification

 

[Skylab]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dreamweapon /img/forum/go_quote.gif cool. i just want a tube that can balance out the brightness a little on my k702's. is replacing the tube pretty simple? any precautions before i do other then turning the power off completely?

Turn off, unplug, and wait 30 minutes. Other than that, very simple. Biggest hassle is removing all the screws to get the chassis open.

 

[dreamweapon]

danks!

 

[dreamweapon]

so do i wear gloves or some sort of cloth when changing out the tube?

 

[Skylab]

Nope. Not required.

 

[dreamweapon]

gonna order this on monday. hopefully i can hear it by the end of the week. whats the consensus for the upsampling options?

 

[NervousE]

Parts Connection have this on special atm, most likely around £360-£390 with shipping to UK. . . I'm torn between this or a dacmagic, which is about £220 and I can pick one up locally. Big price difference, not sure to make the jump as I'm pretty new to all this... thinking cap ON!

 

[NervousE]

whoops forgot to add the vat... make that around £440

 

[Uri Cohen]

I hope I don't cause any problems saying this but I just came back from AXPONA and I did test out this DAC.

My impression: Good but get rid of the headphone amp. The built-in headphone amp is a joke to the point that Mr. Hall himself said it sucks (oh really then who's idea to put a crappy one in the first place?).

In his setup the unbalanced RCA outputs were great. Mr. Hall didn't attempt to use the "balanced" out because he said it is not really balanced (which I knew in advance).

Then I asked where the tubes are from (I know it is from China but I just asked anyway). This guy is quite a character, he didn't answer that question and instead gave me of all things: A shot of Scotch.

That's right: A shot of Scotch to someone who is 20 years old (I guess he thought I was over 21).

Near his headphone amp which was not too bad but not great he had like three bottles of scotch. One of my friend's who is one of the exhibitor's of AXPONA (House of Stereo in the Rope room, best setup IMO of the whole expo) told me all about Mr. Hall and his "drinking habits." According to my friend, the Friday night the gossip was that Mr. Hall was drinking scotch "like wine."

After that shot and partly drunk (this was the first time I had scotch, it went down smooth) he was ripping on Stereophile about the DAC review and their reviews in general (keep saying Surprise ****ing Surprise like five times and pretty much calling Stereophile a bunch of idiots). He also said to me since I'm young that I should be going after "cougars." I'll leave that to your imagination.

After a little more BS while partly drunk with all of his friends (who were drunk too) I just left before I had the chance of another shot of scotch.


Give him a little scotch and he shows his true class. I won't be buying any of his products ever. It's sad because this DAC would be great if they could actually make it balanced and ditch the headphone parts of the DAC.

 

[Yikes]

Hyperdual, you miss the point of the Music Hall 25.2 D/A. It’s a very good upsampling D/A with a good single-ended tube output stage, yes it has a headphone output and XLR outputs that are useable in a pinch, but everyone knows that it’s the RCA outs that anyone with a wit of sense uses. I actually think that you are just being a Troll. Your obsession with balanced seems a little odd since you can’t use balanced with your system anyway.

FYI – The big advantage of the 25.2 over the DacMagic is that the 25.2 is a significantly better platform for upgrading.

You also overstate the whole drinking thing with Roy. He’s Scottish and is famous for giving away shots of nice scotch at shows. I’ve visited Roy at more than a dozen shows and he’s never been hammered, but he does have a good time. He showed you a courtesy by offering you a shot. He doesn’t offer a shot to everyone. You must have been extremely disingenuous for him to do so. You acted all friendly and then come on-line trashing him and his equipment. IMO you are so low that you have to stand on a nickel to piss under a dime. You’re a major TROLL.

 

[classfolkphile]

The stock tube is an Electro-Harmonix (at least it was originally) - Russian, not Chinese. Not very good in any case.

Yes, the headphone amp sucks and there's no point to "balanced" outputs that are not really balanced. There's no way to have true balanced outputs at this price point. It would be a lot better to eliminate those items and improve the parts quality: it would make a good DAC an exceptional one out of the box.

I don't know what your problem with Roy Hall is. That he drinks, that he doesn't like Stereophile? A lot of manufacturers don't like Stereophile (and drink

). Their reviews often leave a lot to be desired. I've met Roy on a couple of occasions and found him likable and knowledgeable, if strongly opinionated. But then every manufacturer I've met is the latter - and not always the former.

 

[Uri Cohen]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yikes /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hyperdual, you miss the point of the Music Hall 25.2 D/A. It’s a very good upsampling D/A with a good single-ended tube output stage, yes it has a headphone output and XLR outputs that are useable in a pinch, but everyone knows that it’s the RCA outs that anyone with a wit of sense uses. I actually think that you are just being a Troll. Your obsession with balanced seems a little odd since you can’t use balanced with your system anyway.

Yawns. There are DACs out there that has true balanced outputs for less than the DAC 25.2. Its a waste having XLR outputs if it not even balanced (IMO).


Quote:

You also overstate the whole drinking thing with Roy. He’s Scottish and is famous for giving away shots of nice scotch at shows. I’ve visited Roy at more than a dozen shows and he’s never been hammered, but he does have a good time. He showed you a courtesy by offering you a shot. He doesn’t offer a shot to everyone. You must have been extremely disingenuous for him to do so. You acted all friendly and then come on-line trashing him and his equipment. IMO you are so low that you have to stand on a nickel to piss under a dime. You’re a major TROLL.

Yawns again. I asked him where the tubes are from and he didn't answer that question. Instead he gave me a shot. After taking that shot is when he start to rip on Stereophile on the DAC. Look I can understand if one person didn't do a greatest review on your product, but you don't have to go completely ape**** in front of people. He rubbed me the wrong way and honestly this guy has no class.

Honestly I don't want to get into a pissing match with you. I thought the two products that I tested (the headphone amp and the DAC) were good but IMO overpriced. Putting in a poor headphone amp with XLR outputs that is not even balanced is just a terrible design choice.

Quote:

Originally Posted by classfolkphile /img/forum/go_quote.gif Yes, the headphone amp sucks and there's no point to "balanced" outputs that are not really balanced. There's no way to have true balanced outputs at this price point. It would be a lot better to eliminate those items and improve the parts quality: it would make a good DAC an exceptional one out of the box.

Agreed 100%.

Quote:

I don't know what your problem with Roy Hall is. That he drinks, that he doesn't like Stereophile? A lot of manufacturers don't like Stereophile (and drink ). Their reviews often leave a lot to be desired. I've met Roy on a couple of occasions and found him likable and knowledgeable, if strongly opinionated. But then every manufacturer I've met is the latter and not always the former.

It is not the drinking. I should had put down on my post that it was the way that he was acting and just completely ripping on Stereophile (to the point of not being professional at all) just rubbed on me to the point that this guy has no class. I should say that in my post up there.

I honestly went into the Music Hall room just to try out the DAC. For $595 IMO it is overpriced with the crappy headphone amp and the not balanced outputs.

Now please don't do personal attacks and name calling. If you want to criticize me please feel free to PM me, not here.

Thanks.

 

[Austin_J]

I've owned the 25.2 for a week now and, to me, it makes a wonderful case for getting out of this audiophile BS and just getting on with life. It's really good, even the headphone amp. I go back and forth with my "Stereophile Class A" Raptor... yes, the Raptor is better and I plan to continue using it, but the headphone amp in the 25.2 is not bad at all and can easily drive my HD 650s. The included headphone amp is a bit rough, but it really is free considering this DAC does better than others at it's price point, so not much to complain about and nice to have as a back up.

I am using a Bugle Boy 6DJ8 and Cardas cables all around. I am also using a footer system that uses a tungsten carbide bearing that made a nice improvement. The power is also being filtered through an APC home theater unit.

Re: Roy and Stereophile. Well, I can't think of another reviewer that devoted more ink to any one manufacturer than Sam T. did to Roy, except Sam T. to Musical Fidelity. It's really just pure laziness on the part of Sam T. and the Stereophile editorial staff for letting that crap pass into print in the first place - one of the main reasons I lost interest in such publications actually. Seems to me some audio writers should be put to pasture when it's clear they are just filling space. I'm glad the internet exists for audiophiles, if for 6moons.com alone.

 

[Zombie_X]

I've been using mine for a while now and really love the DAC. It's a good piece of gear. I know it isn't fully balanced, but to me balanced isn't as big as an upgrade as I once thought. I like the idea of having a tube output stage as well as a solid state stage. This is a big draw to me.

I use the XLR out's on my ROC amp and the RCA's on my WA3+.

Also you guys should really upgrade the tube for the DAC. The tube makes a big difference in the RCA output. I got my unit used with a Amperex 6DJ8 and that tube is very nice, a nice upgrade over the EH tube that is normally included.

But recently I bought a NOS Mullard E88CC from ebay and had it balanced and biased to the DAC and man this was a huge upgrade over the 6DJ8 I had in it before. The soundstage is very large now! Far bigger than I expected and also the sound is smoother with a lot of detail.