Valve based Digital Analogue Converter

[Tourmaline]

Originally Posted by NickW

Hi all,

Just to add to the debate....I recently ordered a RAKK DAC-2 with passive output board. It uses the BB PCM1794 DAC with asynchronous upsampling - the modern school I believe? - and the opposite end of the spectrum to the NOS DACs with zero upsampling/reclocking (?).

I have to say it blows my old Meridian 606 DAC out of the water!, and I had thought that the 606 (coupled with the 602 transport) was pretty good. I'm told an active valve output stage will make things even better, but I can't stretch that far yet. However, all in all, the passive output RAKK DAC-2 has more "music", detail, etc than anything other than the best CD player I've heard to date which was/is the Krell Evolution 505 at ~ £9k at Oxford Audio Consultants in the the process of buying near speakers.

The RAKK DAC-2 has so far cost me ~ £350 (the current US Dollar rate really helps), and I'm chuffed to bits with it. It works really well with the Meridian 602 transport, but I suspect any other transports would be ok too due to the asynchronous upsampling.

Ok, I shall now keep my head down amidst the barrage of offended Forum readers that truly believe the NOS side is best.....

NickW

If you like lifelike sound, then yes, NOS tube dacs are the best. If you like detailed, then fet driven dacs are nice. All comes down to preference but that those filters and technical chit chat makes a dac automatically better is voodoo.