Hey Folks,

Having been a long reader here, this is my first post. And I feel grossly slack in the lateness of my input. After my months of experience with Eric Hider at DbAudioLabs, and the unbelievable sound of my upgraded Tranquility, I have to speak up.

My system is the amazing Decware Torii MkIII, unbelievable Turning Point HR-One hybrid radial/front driver speakers, cables from DbAudio, Reality, PI, Cryoparts, VHaudio, MAC, and Decware, a PI Uberbox, other power treatments from Alan Maher and Kemp, a bunch of room treatments, and so on. My most recent front end of which I was/am very happy is a tricked out 2011 Mac Mini, MusicFidelity V-Link in front of a Decware ZDAC and finally a Decware ZSTAGE (a 0-5 volt, very transparent tube gain stage, for which riding the volume with the Torii volume is a great tool for adding or subtracting weight and body according to recording weaknesses).

After reading up on the Tranquility DAC, I called Eric Hider and he had an open box on hand. We talked a long time and I realized I agreed pretty much entirely with his way of thinking and analyzing gear. Creativity at the core, and thinking outside the box, a mandatory tool, and all tested by double blind listening. I liked this having been an artist my whole life and realizing that common trend thought can often be an impediment to real and important innovation. So the DAC not being Async or up-sampling did not really worry me, especially after hearing about the many tests and comparisons that came to finalizing the use of this NOS chip.

So I got the open box in a few days and the testing began. The Tranquility definitely won in micro detail and micro dynamics, but it was missing something in the body, depth and nuance compared to the ZDAC/ZSTAGE that was at times disconcerting. And at the same time, it at times lacked a little authenticity to me. Like I was listening to a very, very smart DAC that lacked a touch of heart. Luckily this could be mostly averted by tube and cable rolling and minor speaker placement tweaks, but it kept getting to me in a small way, though I could not take it out of the loop.

I loved the beautiful representation of ambience close and far, inner detail (bringing out many subtle colors and textures that give an instrument its individual character) along with the very detailed, yet liquid mids and highs. But a "lost in the music" part still remained slightly lacking with some recordings.

After my many talks with Eric and tweaks, this just did not make sense. And it did not fit with the work and ideas that went into the DAC, or with my sense of DbAudioLabs very articulate awareness of sound qualities. What was wrong here, was it just taste? Was the DAC development method just to smart? Or was it inside the DAC!

Then I rolled some caps on my tweeters and inadvertently I was reminded of the "cap sound." I opened the Tranquility, and voila...there were two big and beautiful V-Caps in there. I called Eric, and said I thought it sounded like caps, and wondered if some synergy had been lost with these excellent caps as opposed to the stock ones which had been carefully chosen from within the total of the matrix of the DAC for "no sound"..."to get out of the way." He said he had forgotten that this DAC was a special order with V-Caps, and could not say if this was my issue, but had me mail it back to him so he could do direct comparisons. Not surprisingly, he too found the DAC "off" and asked if he could put in stock caps, and put in a new output stage he was close to deciding on implementing as stock. I of course agreed.

Having been over a week since I had heard the DAC, I could not make accurate comparisons, but even with a new output stage and new caps, it was a totally enjoyable DAC...no more reservations. It had a subtly natural sound like I had never heard in my system. The very refined spectrum of detail from micro-micro, to macro, was so complete that I could hear all the textures of the instruments and voices. I love the sound of bow hair on gut strings, and the multitude of minute vibrations of wood as the strings cause it to sing....the back wood of a bass as it fills the room and passes through my walls. Or the damp reeds of a sax and the inner timber from the core of the brass as it vibrates. And the sound of a piano string from pad hit to the upward and sideways projections was simply unbelievable (though drums and piano are really special with my HR-ONEs, a characteristic of the design).

And nuance...it is all there in such a natural way that it almost sounded unspectacular. Just plain real.

I am sure it could somehow sound even better, but for me, now, my system is complete. I am content to get lost in the sense of the players in the room, a totally saturated, wide and deep sound stage....though one without any pressing nature...the placement of the players is so natural due to very articulate near ambience, as well as the wider decay as it passed through the walls and ceiling. In fact, eyes closed, I have no walls...just a beautiful representation of players in a space created by my system, not the house.

So thank you very much Eric for your efforts and for all the generous and excellent advice you have offered to help me reach my goal of "no system" just and enthralling and intimate relationship to music! And teh style of music has no effect. It all works....electronic, rock, single player Bach, small Jazz  groups.....whatever. Another amazing aspect of this output stage is how well it differentiates complex music without anything being in your face. A great accomplishment to be sure!

I am so happy to have found Decware, DbAudioLabs, PI, Reality, VHaudio, HerbiesAudiolabs, Cryoparts and all the beautiful folks who found ways to make a living by helping us music freaks to have an impeccable musical experience in our own houses! What a wonder that is! And of course, I can't separate the Tranquility DAC from this grouping of great gear in the synergy that creates this awesome system, but it is a great DAC for me!

Thank you also Bill. Your early interest and work at sorting out sound descriptions of the Tranquility definitely contributed to my interest in the DAC. If I recall, you have a Signature. If the new outputs are anything like the ones in my Tranquility, I would be very surprised if you are not very pleased. I look forward to your response after some burnin!

As this DAC continues to refine itself with use, and I adjust to how best to synergistically use it, it gets a bit odd to me. Part of what makes this DAC spectacular is that it is so unspectacular, if you know what I mean. At least in my system, it just brings out all the minuscule cues and details with such grace, subtlety and naturalness that it sounds like it is not there! I think this is the best compliment I could give a DAC.

i am also interested by the tranquility dac but what a confusion right now

so we have a normal tranquility , a tranquility SE , a tranquility SE with upgraded output stage , a comming HI-rez tranquility, and a comming Spdif tranquility ...

i 'm not " tranquil" at all for choosing one 

Thanks Pinon.  I have the Signature with tin foil V-Cap.  Eric told me for some reason the copper V-Cap didn't sound good with his DAC.  For clarification, I did not say my Tranquility competes with my $6k DAC...it doesn't, but I had to spend 3x as much to get  something significantly better.

Pinon, you might want to the AQVOX USB power supply:

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=97076.0

Pinon,




Oddly enough too, my Torii has the V-caps stuffed inside. And right now it sounds miserable. Last night it sounded so good, I lit a candle. I guess the first question I didn't see asked was, "how many hours do/did you have on the V-Caps?" Every post I've EVER read says it takes at least 500 to 1000 hours for them to sound glorious and before that, you'll want to sell whatever you own that has them. So I'm being patient - sort of. I have just 42 hours on them right now.

Yes, what is that saying? Patience is a Virtue?

My Virtue amp had the Dueland Alexander caps stuffed in it. And for about 495 hours, I threatened to use it as a boat anchor. Ycccch!

But surprise, it finally came around.

If this helps, I did actually call Eric at dB a few weeks back.  Reminds me I still need to get back with him to send my DAC out for upgrade. . .

Larry Moore was the (lead?) designer behind the Tranquility NOS DAC.  Eric at db Audio Labs connected with him on it and brought it to market.  The Tranquility SE came later, which was a refinement of the original Tranquility, also a dB Audio Labs product.  Both the Tranquility and Tranquility SE are current dB Audio Labs products, being sold and supported.

Somewhere in there, Eric/dB Audio Labs and Larry Moore parted ways in their business relationship.  Somewhere in that same ether surfaced the DAC-41, which is yet another revision/refinement of Larry's NOS DAC design, this time produced and marketed by Larry directly, with his own spin on changes/modifications/improvements independent of Eric's influence, to produce a product as he sees it best.  Then, most recently from Larry's camp, has come Larry's power supply upgrade/modification which can be applied to the DAC-41, and by extension the Tranquility and Tranquility SE, this upgrade/mod being sold and serviced by Larry directly under his rates/terms/conditions.

On Eric/dB Audio Labs' front, Eric has been working with a new design team on his new hi-rez battery powered DAC (introduced at RMAF in Danny's GR-Research room).  Along the way, as the Tranquility DACs were used as benchmarks in evaluating the new design, Eric's new team has come up with various modifications/upgrades/changes to the Tranquility platform while developing the new hi-rez DAC.  The most universally beneficial of these mods/upgrades is the new output stage this thread is about, available for both the Tranquility and Tranquility SE DACs.  This modification/upgrade is done through dB Audio Labs at their rates/terms/conditions. 

Being completely honest, I can't remember if I asked Eric whether his output stage could be implemented in Larry's DAC-41 or not, so I can't speak on that one.  Lastly, Eric's new hi-rez DAC is still under development, with updates to follow whenever he sees fit as things go forward; I wish I knew more, but I'm just a customer like most the rest of us. . . or for the curious, he is always just a phone call away and always very willing to talk shop.

Hope that clears up the (parallel) product roadmaps.