My former pre-amp dac was the GRACE DESIGN m920 monitoring system. No slouch with sound reproduction.
All the clarity and lifelike sound that all music lovers want to hear.
As everyone knows this is a NEVER ending hobby or at least that is what my wife tells me
I have a small room compared to many people and I am fortunate that it is a dedicated room for my HT and my 2channel audio nirvana. Room dimensions are 25' L 8-10' W with 7' Ceilings.
I own B&W 803diamonds and they are my speakers of choice. I know there are people on this forum who to put it bluntly HATE B&W and have to.d me so. This however is not the reason for this post. I LOVE this hobby and I LOVE reading about other people's experiences with the whole equation...speakers,pre-amps,dacs,receivers, cables the whole enchilada.
To the point of this post I along with a VERY GOOD friend whose talents go well beyond the norm about electronics (studyed ELECTRONICS in the AIR FORCE) and continued for over 20 years broadening his knowledge in the electronics field.
We became friends a little over 3years ago through another forum visiting each other and comparing and mostly enjoying our systems.
Togather we were looking outside the box in taking our systems to the next level in regards to pre-amps & dacs. (We both had the GRACE m920) His speakers are a fantastic list of likeables Dynaudio Gemini,PNB Montana EPS speakers, Magnepan 3.6/R speakers. The Montana's & the Magnapan are in use.
Our research lead us to the SP14 tube pre-amp and the Audionote 4.1LE dac. Both were in kit form.
For both my friend and I tubes are the answer. Analog stage for us is the most important. This for me is my second multibit dac...Theta pro basic ll was my first and I was highly impressed. Mike Moffat did a great job and our research first led us to the SCHIIT YGGDRASIL which we both respect but we still wanted something that we both found unique by our standards.
The Audionote caught our eye b/c first it was a tube dac. Second and most impressive were the internal guts of this dac. Below is a short list.
-tube rectified and regulated power supply
-multibit AD1865 dac chip
-NO upsampling,over sampling or side sampling....just clean digital to analog conversion
-transformer coupled I/V AND C-Core transformer coupled output
-tube output stage
Lastly I want to mention 2x triple C-Core output transformers & 2x I/V transformers
The performance of this dac combined with theSP14 has given my system a broader soundstage.
I always had with the GRACE a 3dimensional sound that was so inviting but I lacked the soundstage b/c as mentioned my room was only 8' wide. I was pleasantly surprised. Now I not only have that pseudo 3dimensional sound but the entire front of my room is full with lifelike performances. I can also claim that my entire room is filled with music.
This dac makes clear what you are hearing from horns, piano, guitar to a brush stroking a cymbal, to Diana Krall breathing on a microphone.
If your looking for something different in a dac, out of the box I suggest the AUDIONOTE!!
