Which AVA DAC to Buy?

martyo · « **Reply #20 on:** 30 Jun 2011, 04:42 pm »

Quote

Hey Martyo, did you ever do the Mosfet upgrade to your DAC? I'm going to bring mine over to Frank's in Sept. for the upgrade as a BDay present to myself. The upgrade to my preamp really smoothed out the high frequency and improved the bass.

Hi Larry! No. 2 years ago for my birthday I was going to get the remote for the T8, never did. Last year I bought a VA Super Tuner 1 and was going to send it up to Frank to do his magic, never did. This year I was planning on the DAC upgrade but Jim Salk is moving forward with his "SalkStream" music server and will have the proto-type in Calif next week. I'm hoping that will be the next addition to the set. I really want to eliminate the transport.

Sounds like it was excellent in your preamp, hope you get your Bday present!

trackball02 · « **Reply #21 on:** 2 Jul 2011, 07:24 pm »

Great suggestion concerning leaving the screws off, I did not even think of that.

Martyo, what tubes are you now running with your T8? Also, since my AvaStar is a hybrid, will swapping tubes be as dramatic in changing the overall sound?

Also, I have a dumb question....I listen to a lot of LPs with the built-in phono option, will a Avastar tube change also affect how LPs will sound as well?

mark funk · « **Reply #22 on:** 2 Jul 2011, 08:13 pm »

I think I can do this one. No, there is a small SS head phone amp that drives the phones or cans.

trackball02 · « **Reply #23 on:** 3 Jul 2011, 03:43 pm »

Mark,
Are you saying that the line out that goes to the amp will be changed by tube rolling (including the sound from the built in phono preamp) but tube rolling will not change the headphone output?
Thanks, Jay

avahifi · « **Reply #24 on:** 3 Jul 2011, 06:12 pm »

The headphone circuits in all new AVA tube or hybrid preamps are small no feedback high current unity gain current buffers connected internally to the active line circuit outputs. They have nearly zero distortion (0.0003% THD and a slew rate of 3000V/uS. They add no sound of their own at all.

Since they follow the tube or tube hybrid line circuits, they wlll of course be influnced by your choice of tubes, for better or for worse. May clients tell us they provide the best headphone performance they have ever heard. They certainly drive my 30 ohm impedence Grado phones very well indeed.

Regards,

Frank Van Alstine

mark funk · « **Reply #25 on:** 3 Jul 2011, 06:40 pm »

Sorry about that. My older T-5 has a different circuit then the new ones

trackball02 · « **Reply #26 on:** 3 Jul 2011, 07:08 pm »

Frank,
Thanks for the clarification regarding the headphone circuit and tube rolling.
I concur with the headphone performance, my Sennheiser HD 600 sounds awesome with the AvaStar.
Jay

Tone Depth · « **Reply #27 on:** 14 Jul 2011, 03:15 am »

My understanding of the Salkstream is that it outputs a digital signal to a DAC, so you'll still need a DAC if you decide to get a Salkstream to replace your transport.

Quote from: martyo on 30 Jun 2011, 04:42 pm

Hi Larry! No. 2 years ago for my birthday I was going to get the remote for the T8, never did. Last year I bought a VA Super Tuner 1 and was going to send it up to Frank to do his magic, never did. This year I was planning on the DAC upgrade but Jim Salk is moving forward with his "SalkStream" music server and will have the proto-type in Calif next week. I'm hoping that will be the next addition to the set. I really want to eliminate the transport.

Sounds like it was excellent in your preamp, hope you get your Bday present!

srb · « **Reply #28 on:** 14 Jul 2011, 04:25 am »

Quote from: Tone Depth on 14 Jul 2011, 03:15 am

My understanding of the Salkstream is that it outputs a digital signal to a DAC, so you'll still need a DAC if you decide to get a Salkstream to replace your transport.

Martyo had a planned upgrade to his existing AVA Ultra DAC before now setting his sights on the Salkstream.

Steve

martyo · « **Reply #29 on:** 14 Jul 2011, 09:17 am »

Quote from: martyo on 30 Jun 2011, 04:42 pm

Hi Larry! No. 2 years ago for my birthday I was going to get the remote for the T8, never did. Last year I bought a VA Super Tuner 1 and was going to send it up to Frank to do his magic, never did. This year I was planning on the DAC upgrade but Jim Salk is moving forward with his "SalkStream" music server and will have the proto-type in Calif next week. I'm hoping that will be the next addition to the set. I really want to eliminate the transport.

Quote from: Tone Depth on 14 Jul 2011, 03:15 am

My understanding of the Salkstream is that it outputs a digital signal to a DAC, so you'll still need a DAC if you decide to get a Salkstream to replace your transport.

That's right Steve.

Quote from: srb on 14 Jul 2011, 04:25 am

Martyo had a planned upgrade to his existing AVA Ultra DAC before now setting his sights on the Salkstream.

Steve

Okay, no reason to make this into more than it is. Sometimes it's life's priorities, sometimes I'm just cheap. In the case of the remote, $400 into the hi-fi w/o any sonic improvement. AND I'm 60, it's healthy for me to get up and walk across the room and adjust the volume. I'm serious, so I took a pass. The AV Super Tuner I sounds pretty damn good as it is. The UPGRADE of the DAC makes sense but for me the SalkStream would be a major purchase, the $300 could go towards that for now. (knowing that down the road something is going to be done DAC wise)

Now if we're just dreaming, I want the Salk Soundscapes, I want to UPGRADE my Ultra Double 550+ to the 600R and I want the AVA Hybrid Vision DAC.

Tone Depth · « **Reply #30 on:** 15 Jul 2011, 03:20 am »

Sounds like you've got the start of an audio bucket list.

Back to the original post: If you can afford it, buy one of the Vision DACs. Otherwise, buy one of the previous generation Ultra or Insight DACs, and upgrade it when you're ready to incorporate HiRes sources.

Quote from: martyo on 14 Jul 2011, 09:17 am

That's right Steve.
Okay, no reason to make this into more than it is. Sometimes it's life's priorities, sometimes I'm just cheap. In the case of the remote, $400 into the hi-fi w/o any sonic improvement. AND I'm 60, it's healthy for me to get up and walk across the room and adjust the volume. I'm serious, so I took a pass. The AV Super Tuner I sounds pretty damn good as it is. The UPGRADE of the DAC makes sense but for me the SalkStream would be a major purchase, the $300 could go towards that for now. (knowing that down the road something is going to be done DAC wise)

Now if we're just dreaming, I want the Salk Soundscapes, I want to UPGRADE my Ultra Double 550+ to the 600R and I want the AVA Hybrid Vision DAC.

avahifi · « **Reply #31 on:** 15 Jul 2011, 02:51 pm »

A change of subject, but I thought you guys might want to know a bit about our California audio show setup.

We did the setup yesterday and, rather amazingly, needed no acoustic treatment to the plain old hotel room to get great sound.

It seems that the Soundscape 10 speakers are really room friendly and so is our new 600R hybrid amplifier. No boom, no obvious base nodes, no zingy highs, great imaging anywhere in the room. It was the easiest setup we have ever done with probably the best results ever.

We are using an Avastar hybrid preamp, Vision Hybrid DAC, and the new Fet Valve 600R amplifier running a lovely set of Salk Soundscape 10 speakers. The source is computer stored digital music fed to our DAC by Jim's new Salkstreamer and a Kingrex UC192 USB to coax converter box.

Now we shall see what the thundering herd thinks.

Jim did suggest the we leave the (disconnected) high end $3500 DAC still sit there on top with its single lonely tube poking out the top to draw the audio snobs into the room. He was nice about it, said it was up to me, and I said no, not necessary.

We did use some premium cables of unknown brand instead of my Radio Shack stuff but that worked only after replacing one set that turned out to be defective. Go figure. I did leave my old rope speaker cables at home.

Unfortunately, nobody has offered us any wonderful sounding premium grade AC power cords to use yet. Oh well, I can't afford to buy any, got all my money tied up in the equipment itself.

Come see us if you can and prepare for a nice listen. Room 426.

Regards,

Frank Van Alstine

martyo · « **Reply #32 on:** 15 Jul 2011, 03:04 pm »

Sounds like a killer set-up, have a great show

Brother Mark will be disapointed his hemp cables didn't make this cut, especially being in the Bay Area.

pardales · « **Reply #33 on:** 15 Jul 2011, 03:07 pm »

Quote from: Tone Depth on 15 Jul 2011, 03:20 am

Back to the original post: If you can afford it, buy one of the Vision DACs. Otherwise, buy one of the previous generation Ultra or Insight DACs, and upgrade it when you're ready to incorporate HiRes sources.

Sage advice!

Have a great show, Frank. Sounds like an awesome set-up.

trackball02 · « **Reply #34 on:** 15 Jul 2011, 07:01 pm »

I wish I could attend the CA audio show and listen to the Vision Hybrid DAC. Please post more feedback from those who get to listen to this system!

simon wagstaff · « **Reply #35 on:** 15 Jul 2011, 08:03 pm »

Not to thread hi-jack but I just don't understand music servers and streamers. I have a mac mini with 3 tb of storage and just use it's optical out to my DAC and Decibel for playback. sounds as good or better than a CD for red book files and will play just about any hi rez files that I have including the Beatles 24 bit files. Mac Minis are about 500 bucks new.

srb · « **Reply #36 on:** 15 Jul 2011, 08:22 pm »

Quote from: simon wagstaff on 15 Jul 2011, 08:03 pm

Not to thread hi-jack but I just don't understand music servers and streamers. I have a mac mini with 3 tb of storage and just use it's optical out to my DAC and Decibel for playback. sounds as good or better than a CD for red book files and will play just about any hi rez files that I have including the Beatles 24 bit files. Mac Minis are about 500 bucks new.

Okay, a music server and your Mac Mini are pretty much the same thing, although many users report better sound quality when the computer is used as a dedicated device with all other non-essential and non-music related services disabled. Further improvements might be had with the use of an SSD internal drive.

Streamers like the squeezebox are often used when the sound system is not in close proximity to the music server and a wireless connection is needed. Although, as you probably know, the optical output of the Mini is limited to 24/96 which may not affect your library, some users need higher resolution and some have also reported improved sound quality when using a USB or FireWire interface instead of the Mac optical output to the DAC, but results can vary widely.

I'm not saying your setup doesn't sound good, but like everything audio, small improvements can sometimes be realized with a disproportionate budget increase.

Oh, and new Mac Minis start at $700.

Steve

simon wagstaff · « **Reply #37 on:** 16 Jul 2011, 11:48 am »

Sorry, yes, new mac minis are around 700 bucks. Mine is an older one with a core solo processor. I dropped in more memory when I moved it to a music server role. I just might try the firewire output to my Pioneer TSX 59i which has a fire wire input but so far the best thing I have done was pick up Decibel to use as my playback software. 24/96 is fine with me as well.

Thanks!

I.Greyhound Fan · « **Reply #38 on:** 21 Jul 2011, 10:00 pm »

Quote from: martyo on 30 Jun 2011, 04:42 pm

Hi Larry! No. 2 years ago for my birthday I was going to get the remote for the T8, never did. Last year I bought a VA Super Tuner 1 and was going to send it up to Frank to do his magic, never did. This year I was planning on the DAC upgrade but Jim Salk is moving forward with his "SalkStream" music server and will have the proto-type in Calif next week. I'm hoping that will be the next addition to the set. I really want to eliminate the transport.

Sounds like it was excellent in your preamp, hope you get your Bday present!

Hey Martyo, I just dropped off my DAC for the mosfet upgrade today. My Bday is coming early this year. If the upgrade is only half as good as the preamp upgrade I will be happy.

martyo · « **Reply #39 on:** 22 Jul 2011, 01:21 am »

Quote from: I.Greyhound Fan on 21 Jul 2011, 10:00 pm

Hey Martyo, I just dropped off my DAC for the mosfet upgrade today. My Bday is coming early this year. If the upgrade is only half as good as the preamp upgrade I will be happy.

Happy Birthday! Let us know how it sounds.