Pairing TA-20/TA-26 with Denafrips/Soekris

[roderickvd]

Hi everyone! My current cans are a pair of 250Ω Beyerdynamic Amiron Home powered by a self-built AMB β22 amp (two-board setup) and Soekris dam1121 with custom quasi-NOS filters from the kind folks at diyAudio. All powered with a linear power supply. I was (and still am) very satisfied with them, but the bug bit me and I'm yearning for a warmer sound.

So I thought to try something different entirely and try some tubes! I love DIY and looked at the Bottlehead designs, but the shipping and tax to Europe are a shame, particularly when I found the rave reviews of the xDuoo amps.

I am now considering either the xDuoo TA-20 (hybrid, true balanced) or the TA-26 (OTL, single ended) and am pondering what would be a good pairing with a R2R DAC. Within my budget I could then conjure up a Denafrips Ares II or a Soekris 2541. I do want it to be R2R, I'm looking for as much as an analog sound as I can reasonably get from digital audio.

The Ares is true balanced so would go well with the TA-20. I feel like going single-ended is throwing away what's on the table and unnecessarily going through opamps. Now I *think* the hybrid TA-20 would be less tubey than the OTL TA-26, but, perhaps a good match with the Ares in NOS mode (I know it's not true NOS). For my Amiron's I can get balanced cables so I could go full balanced from source to cans.

On the other end, I know the stock filters of the Soekris and find them unengaging on my solid-state and mostly neutral β22 amp. *But* a Soekris dac2541 paired with the tubier TA-26 might again be a good pairing? While that one offers balanced out, it's single-ended internally, so the same logic applies as with the Ares but in reverse. One advantage the Soekris has: it offers a low-Z headphone out in case I'd want to play with planars or lower-Z dynamic cans down the road.

I'm a sucker for NOS and the technical prowess of a full balanced setup, but in the end also realise it's about good pairing. Cables are short so that's not what I need balanced for.

Which pairing would you recommend for an appropriate "tubey" sound, not too little, not too much?

Also open to other options in the same price range, though I'm not fond of the Little Dot aesthetics. As for the Schiit offerings, I understand that their multibit designs are fairly neutral sounding -- more like delta-sigma than other R2R DACs.

 

[msing539]

I don't have enough familiarity with everything you've mentioned to give a proper recommendation. But I do have the Ares II and find it to be very natural and analog sounding. On the Ares, OS and slow filter are my personal preference.

 

[roderickvd]

Thank you for your reply.

Last weekend I pulled the trigger on the TA-20 and Ares II combo. I'm not sure if I made the right choice with the TA-20 or should have gotten the TA-26, but I *did* decide on the Ares, and can always buy the TA-26 later and hook them *both* up -- the TA-20 balanced and the TA-26 single-ended.

Reasons I chose Denafrips over Soekris:
- I know the Soekris stock filters and find them unenganging
- the Denafrips has dedicated oscillators, the Soekris a single programmable one
- the Denafrips has a linear power supply, the Soekris switching mode
- the Denafrips is fully balanced, the dac2541 isn't and runs through an opamp -- I believe the dac1541 is fully balanced, but no longer available
- on the other hand, running the Denafrips single-ended (for a future TA-26) gets the signal from the ve+ ladder

I know both get good reviews and measurements, but here it is.

I also bought some NOS Sylvania 6189W tubes to roll into the TA-20.

I expect it all to all arrive last week of March, beginning of April.