Can I get a DAC/CDP with this sound?

[al2813]

I have been building my system since getting the audiophilia virus 3 years ago (with a big acceleration during the lock in). After a lot of changes these are the main components:

Audio Note Meishu line - a 1998/9 specimen. Very decent tubes put by previous owner. I had to get the power board recapped recently and this may need further refresh but right now seems to be working well
Audio Note AN/E L speakers from 1998. Woofer replaced in 2020.
Audio Note LX96 Speaker cables still burning in
MHDT Orchid DAC combined with a home brew streamer PC running Euphony Stylus (JCAT USB FEMTOO) + HDPlex 300W LPS
Ah Tjoeb 4000 Tube CDP
Recently I decided to go into Vynil. I bought a Pro Ject the Classic TT currently running ab Ortofon 2M Blue cartridge.

The phono pre amp is the last item and for a reason. I just plugged into my system a second hand SW1X LPU1 Signature MM phono pre amp. As a side note, the previous owner purchased it directly from Christiaan Punter from Hifi Advice. This was his review unit from 2017 and the serial number is 1

Plugging it into my system on Wednesday I was blown away. This is the sound I was looking for all the time. Space, stage, depth. The music jumping straight to you. I am in heaven.

And of course as I cannot afford to buy all the music I listen to on vinyl, I want the same sound also on the digital side. Is this achievable? I have been pretty happy with my MHDT Orchid and my CDP, but the sound I am getting now on Vinyl is so much deeper and empathic that I think I need an upgrade. Just no clue to what.....

 

[RoA]

A deliberately 'badly' engineered DAC, possibly with tubes which add a nice amount of distortion and suitably decrease S/N should do the job admirably.

 

[bencat]

I would suggest that you get to listen to and Audio Note DAC the best you can afford and that will very likely give you the type of sound you are looking for . The other option is to make the Digital side as clean as possible which should give you a very accurate sound which you may well not like . If you can get to hear a system with a DCS stack CD/DAC/Clock etc and this will give you the flavour of a very good (but expensive) digital system can sound like . If you do like this then you can identify cheaper equipment which will give you nearly as good sound but for less money .

 

[Weirdness]

If you can find a used Metrum Octave DAC you'll find it to be a good compliment to your system. It's not perfect but it definitely has it where it counts.

 

[adamdea]

A deliberately 'badly' engineered DAC, possibly with tubes which add a nice amount of distortion and suitably decrease S/N should do the job admirably.

There are also some plugins which can enable you to distort digital to sound like vinyl. I think Weiss have one for their dacs. Also eg Izotope.
https://www.izotope.com/en/products/vinyl
I suggested on the squeezebox forum that someone should make a similar plugin, but the developers said "why would anyone want one?"
Incidentally this thread seems essentially to be asking the same quesiton as
https://pinkfishmedia.net/forum/threads/linn-lp12-vs-digital.261626/

 

[al2813]

It's funny that the sound I like is actually "distorted", "not clean" etc. Anyway what do I know.....

 

[AguycalledSimon]

Interesting post
I second what Weirdness posted - I had this DAC for a few years and felt it gave some aspects of analogue, and when I sold it was more due to limitations on sampling rate than with its actual performance, although I feel my setup now is markedly better

I do have a slightly different slant, though - i enjoy both digital and vinyl - more-so vinyl, but think that the strengths of each medium are in very different areas, so I build the analogue and digital sides of my setup to reflect the strengths of each, rather than potentially 'downgrade' one replay chain so it sounds closer to the other one - even if I prefer the other one

OK - I get that this sounds wrong on first reading - but here is what I have found - maxing out the digital side of my setup has not made digital sound like analogue - but it sure has improved the digital side, so that it is a viable alternative. Admittedly my effort to max this out (upsample to DSD, play via filters from HQPlayer etc.) is not plug-and-play to set up, but once setup it works beautifully simply

So - get a DAC that sounds like analogue? I did that myself with the Metrum Octave and its a nice compromise, so its not a bad solution at all - but for me, i am enjoying digital far more now that I have embraced the dark side and tried to extract the benefits of digital as much as I can

Still prefer vinyl, though

 

[al2813]

Interesting post
I second what Weirdness posted - I had this DAC for a few years and felt it gave some aspects of analogue, and when I sold it was more due to limitations on sampling rate than with its actual performance, although I feel my setup now is markedly better

I do have a slightly different slant, though - i enjoy both digital and vinyl - more-so vinyl, but think that the strengths of each medium are in very different areas, so I build the analogue and digital sides of my setup to reflect the strengths of each, rather than potentially 'downgrade' one replay chain so it sounds closer to the other one - even if I prefer the other one

OK - I get that this sounds wrong on first reading - but here is what I have found - maxing out the digital side of my setup has not made digital sound like analogue - but it sure has improved the digital side, so that it is a viable alternative. Admittedly my effort to max this out (upsample to DSD, play via filters from HQPlayer etc.) is not plug-and-play to set up, but once setup it works beautifully simply

So - get a DAC that sounds like analogue? I did that myself with the Metrum Octave and its a nice compromise, so its not a bad solution at all - but for me, i am enjoying digital far more now that I have embraced the dark side and tried to extract the benefits of digital as much as I can

Still prefer vinyl, though

I started fully digital and worked on it, but everything changed when I discovered tubes. This led me straight to vinyl. But as I said I cannot afford to have all the music I listen to in Vinyl. So need digital and do not intend to drop it...

 

[bencat]

Well if you want to take a chance on the cheap

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/33422761...d=link&campid=5338728743&toolid=20001&mkevt=1

This is a bit more spendy but with regards to quality is a better DAC for sound quality than the original Octave .

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/22468390...d=link&campid=5338728743&toolid=20001&mkevt=1

For what it is worth as it will not change anyone else's mind but I stopped playing vinyl when CD came out and would never go back . I have heard systems with 50,000 front end TT / Arm / Cartridge / Phono and I am still less than impressed . I would agree completely that Digital needs very different things and what you do to make digital sound better often makes Vinyl sound improve but not the other way round. My digital three way system that I am listening to now sounds immense and I would not change it only improve it. With digital the power supplies and rf interference in the chain makes a huge difference and when you hear a fully set up system with these reduced the sound is natural easy to listen to and above all silent no hash or back ground noises which means that you relax more and listen to the music.