[theppd]

Hello dear headfiers!
 
Some time ago I've had the Valab and it sounded really musical for me but unfortunately I've replaced it with my current PS DLlll which is not enough soulful I think. And would like to come back to more analog sound I've heard from the VALAB recently. But is it worth to try some MHDTs first?
 
Thank you.
 
Paul.

 

[Dynobot]

I had the Havana and still have a couple of Valab Dacs.
 
Can you tell which one I thought sounded best?

 

[CountChoculaBot]

Really you preferred the Valab over Havana?  Surprising... I was considering upgrading from my Chameleon to Havana but now not so sure =[

 

[theppd]

nonono!
I made it unclear, sorry. I have no experience with any MHDT DACs. What I had is the VALAB NOS but wanted to go to the next level and got the PS Audio Digital link which is not so musical and soulful as my past VALAB. So I'm asking anybody to guide me for the next DAC which could be any of MHDT or VALAB again.

 

[Dynobot]

Quote:

Really you preferred the Valab over Havana?  Surprising... I was considering upgrading from my Chameleon to Havana but now not so sure =[

Don't get me wrong, the Havana is a better sounding dac but it just did not synergize with the rest of my gear like the Valab did....the Havana has blacker back grounds, more realistic voices, and a nice tube sound.  But the Valab won in over all musicality.  At the time I was looking for a Dac in the 1K range that would obviously beat the Valab and show its worth, not by a 5 to 1 margin but by enough to justify itself.  Slightly better was not good enough. 
 
 

 

[Wood]

You could look at the Chameleon Dac, from the same stable as the Valab so has the same character, but more refined due to using 16 TDA1543 and an external psu, as opposed to the Valabs 8 TDA1543, also a good thread if you want to mod it here. http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/465039/chameleon-dac-listening-and-modifications
 
I have both and found the Chameleon version keeps all the goodness of the Valab and takes it to another level.

 

[theppd]

Thank you, I'm curious is there any comparison in terms of soul and musicality between MHDTs and VALABs? Since I want to get the most.

 

[theppd]

Anybody?

 

[anetode]

 
Quote:

Thank you, I'm curious is there any comparison in terms of soul and musicality between MHDTs and VALABs? Since I want to get the most.

They're all cold, soulless machines.

 

[theppd]

up

 

[Dynobot]

Quote:

Thank you, I'm curious is there any comparison in terms of soul and musicality between MHDTs and VALABs? Since I want to get the most.

Thats really a subjective question, I mean whats musical to me may not be to you or someone else.  Perfect example of this is the fact that everyone has different Dacs in their systems that they are happy with, and all these people feel their Dacs are musical and soulful.  I guess you could say that every Dac is musical to somebody, but not every Dac is musical to everybody.
 
 
 

 

[Wood]

For what is worth, some opinions here: http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?ddgtl&1258710401