Tubedac+ vs. MSB Platinum Plus DAC

gongos · « **on:** 26 Apr 2005, 04:04 am »

What do you guys think about the choice between these 2 without thinking about the price? The MSB has a $1300 Modwright mod package also.

warnerwh · « **Reply #1 on:** 26 Apr 2005, 04:19 am »

After owning several dacs I've come to the conclusion that it's very personal and system dependent. I had an MSB III and didn't care for it as it over filtered the sound and killed the transients and dynamics. There's jumpers you can remove to ameliorate this but then it sounded nearly the same as the dac in my Sony ES player. I haven't heard the tubedac but bet I'd personally like it better than any MSB. That said there's sure alot of people happy with the MSB's. If you can get the dac at a price you can resell for then it's worth a shot. I'd opt for the Scott Nixon and may still do so.

gongos · « **Reply #2 on:** 26 Apr 2005, 05:38 am »

Price is an issue too some extent. One is $425 the other is about $1800.

toxteth ogrady · « **Reply #3 on:** 26 Apr 2005, 06:29 am »

I personally prefer the sound of non over sampling dacs to upsampling players. I find them to be much more natural and organic sounding... of course my ears, my system. I've owned the Nixon Tubedac and the Ack dack, and both dacs offer tremendous performance for the money. I would recommend hearing a non os dac first to see if that's the kind of sound you like. If you like what you hear you could find an original Dack for about $300 used, swap out the Auricaps for OIMP V-Caps bypassed with teflon V-Caps and never look back. If you diy there are some amazing kits out right now like Yeo's Monica or the Peter Daniel kit both available for about $150... I'm personally considering this one http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=55808 for $330 shipped, which looks to be very special. If you don't want to get your hands dirty, I think Vinnie from Red Wine Audio will put the Monica in a box for you. Good thing is you've got lot's of choices and most of them are cheap!

gongos · « **Reply #4 on:** 26 Apr 2005, 07:11 am »

I have a Dack and a Tubedac+ right now and am trying to make a decision between the 2. I know Steve at Empirical Audio does some work on the Dack.

Hantra · « **Reply #5 on:** 26 Apr 2005, 10:57 pm »

The MSB is one of the best oversamplers I've heard. Actually I heard the Platinum and not the overmodded, overpriced thing. But I thought it was a very revealing DAC and it resolved a LOT of detail. It didn't really get harsh, but it also didn't do that "music" thing the non-OS DAC's do. It never used silence as an instrument, and there are very few stratospherically priced oversamplers that do this, but none do it as well as a non-OS DAC.

HTH,

B