[hifimiami]

Impressions Music Hall DAC 25.3, when I first purchased the 25.3 DAC . My imprssions with the stock tube, bass lacks  weight and articulation, detail and clarity and imaging. Replaced stock tube with Gold Lion E88CC big improvement but overall sound very bright and slightly metallic on upper treble.
The magic cure, a French Mazda 7308 from Brent Jessee Recording, the Mazda 7308 improved performance on all parameters bass articulation, midrange smooth treble and exceptional imaging.
Prior to installing the Mazda 7308 I was planning to do a modification of the op amps however after installing the Mazda 7308 tube I no longer desire to do any modification to the DAC.
I highly recommend the Music Hall Dac 25.3 with the Mazda 7308 from Brent Jessee at audiotubes.com.

 

[DjAmTraX]

I am eyeing this DAC. I have a 12AX7 Gold Lion tube sitting around in a box.
Which input sounds best?

 

[Skylab]

You can't use a 12AX7.  This DAC uses a 6DJ8/6922.  I found a Sylvania Gold Brand 6DJ8 sounded very good, and much better than the stock tube.

 

[DjAmTraX]

6922 is a 12AT7 right? How's the headphones amp?

 

[Skylab]

No. A 6922 is an uprated 6DJ8, non compatible in any way with a 12A-anything. The 6DJ8 is a 6.3 volt tube, whereas the 12AX7 and 12AT7 are 12 volt tubes.

I thought the built in headphone amp was only fair. Note that the tube output is not in the signal path of the headphone amp (or the balanced outputs).

 

[DjAmTraX]

Thank you Skylab.  Where is it made in?  Would you say it's good for under $500 compared to Arcam rDac or MF V-DAC or Apogee Duet 2?

 

[Skylab]

Never heard those other DACs, but I thought the Music Hall was good sounding for the money, for sure.  I ended up letting mine go, but only because I upgraded

 

 

[korzena]

I've had a chance to listen to Music Hall dac25.3 (with stock tube, through coaxial cable, transport: Squeezebox Touch) for the last few days. I auditioned it with my Audio-Technica W5000 headphones.
 
My conclusions of the sound quality of Music Hall DAC are much closer to Stereophile's opinion than the 6moons'.
To my ears this DAC offers sound of lower resolution, clarity and detail than my Squeezebox Touch built-in DAC. It is however more dynamic and has better speed. It also adds some nice weight/body to the sound (maybe a bit too much of it in bass as the bass sounds a bit bloated).
 
Heavier music like rock, metal sounds better on Music Hall than on my Squeezebox Touch, but for other kinds of music it is not the case. My general impression is that the DAC provides 'muddy' sound and I lose a lot of detail and clarity. Maybe with a different tube, the sound improves, but I haven't had a chance to try any other. I will be returning this unit and continue searching for the right DAC for me.

 

[RedBull]

^ korzena, just in case, have you tried Audio-Gd NFB-2?

 

[korzena]

@RedBull
No, unfortunately I haven't had a chance to try the Audio-Gd NFB-2. Why?
 
p.s. After a few more days of listening to the Music Hall DAC I liked it much more. Maybe it's due to my mental (or DAC physical) burn-in that helped. Actually I really like the sound from it now, but still think that I could get something better at similar price, maybe some Audio-GD (however I've heard very mixed opinions about their products...) or Eastern Electric Minimax Tube Dac.

 

[RedBull]

Music Hall is one of the DAC in my radar when I was looking for DAC, never had a time to listen to it tho, but now since I had the NFB-2, just wondering how the sound compares.

 

[korzena]

I don't have too much experience with DACs yet, but my feeling is that the Music Hall although is a decent one, is not the best thing you can get for the money. At the moment I am looking at Eastern Electric Minimax Tube DAC which seems to be one of the best after reading many reviews. They stopped selling the first version of it, but the new (second) version is about to be released in September. Have you heard about this DAC at all? You can read the review about this one and many other tube DACs here: http://www.digitalaudioreview.net.au/index.php/audio-reviews/digital-source-reviews/item/175-eastern-electric-minimax-tube-dac
Have a nice day!

 

[RedBull]

It is from that site review then I weight NFB-2 over EE Minimax DAC ver. 1.  I never heard direct comparison of both though.

 

[ab111]

I just got the Music Hall 25.2 version with burson discrete opamps and the dexa clock upgrade. I use an expensive but definitely worth it 1972 NOS Mazda tube. I never had it in stock though so I can't tell the comparisons but this dac made night and day changes in my speaker system. I have been moving out of the head-fi scene and more into speakers, I run a Cambridge Audio SR10, with Wharfedale 10.1, bi-amped with Transparent High Performance cable with a toslink connection from an apple tv 2 to the Music Hall 25.2 dac. Before this system I used a uDac2 but it isn't really a fair comparison since the Music Hall dac with all its upgrades is over 10 times the price of the uDac2.
 
It has only been in my possession for less than a week so I haven't rolled it with my other tubes, the stock EH tube it comes with and a Tesla tube but I have heard that since this is only a tube buffer, after the burson opamp upgrade the tube has very little effect to the sound. I haven't tried it yet so I won't know. I haven't tried the usb connection yet but I doubt I will actually use it since I don't want to run cables across the room which is why I use an apple tv 2.
 
I have a toslink to coaxial converter on order, does any know if there is a degradation in sound quality if that is used? Is it something that can't affect sound quality? Either way I plan on using it with my xbox since the Music Hall dac only has1 toslink input.
 
I am currently using a cheap RCA and toslink cable which I plan on buying a higher quality RCA and a glass toslink cable once I can find them for a decent price that ship in Canada or I have to stop being lazy and go to my audio dealer to see if they have anything within a reasonable cost (unlikely, they tried to charge me 850 for a new MH 25.3 dac)
 

 

[korzena]

NFB-2 looks like a good potential candidate, too. I am only worried about its soundstage. I remember reading some people reporting flat sound out of it. Maybe it's not the case, but I have to double-check it as I really want a DAC that give me expansive and deep soundstage.
Have you heard opinions about the NFB-2 soundstage?