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Hey! If you like your SS amp right now and it can drive your speaker fine. The easiest way to get tube in your system is to get a good tubed preamp. Just make sure your SS amp input impedance is high enough for the tube preamp that you want to pair it with.. at least 25K should be safe. Anyway, like most people I started out with an all SS system. Then I added my first tube component, a tubed preamp an Audio Note M1 Phono in my case... of which I have still have after 25 years, although I upgraded/modded it over the years. After I got a taste of tube with the preamp I couldn't help but also got tube amp after that. Now I have an all tubed system... DIY TDA1543 DAC with tube buffer---Helius Alexia turntable with Helius Omega tonearm and Hana EL cart ---Audio Note M1 Phono tube preamp--- Welborne Lab Apollo SET monoblocks amps with KR Audio 842VHD tubes and Bel Canto 845 SET amp... DIY TWQT Single Driver speakers based on 6" Fostex 94dB sensitivity with Fostex FT17H supertweeters. Beside my recent purchase of the Helius turntable/arm about 2 years ago and I just built tube buffer for my DAC my system have pretty stayed the same for the past 20 years. Anyway, tube is not for everyone. I'd recommend you go hear some tubed systems for yourself if you can before you decided to take a plunge. Don't know where you are or if there is any audio stores in your area or if you know or if there any other audiophiles in your area with tube system that you could check out. I'm in NYC area. Well, good luck, take your time and keep us posted.
A tube DAC does more to make the system sound 'non-digital' than a tube preamp, IME.
Tyson I don't think I have listened to a tube DAC specifically but when people talk about them they say they have better time and timbre but they don't mention that they give the music a tube like sound. That is one of the reasons I started this thread to see if their is a difference in tubes in different parts of a system.
Not sure this is helpful but last year, I switched from a Denafrips Terminator II (TII) to a Lampizator DAC and the difference was night & day. This is what I emailed to one of my audiophile friends as an initial impression:PROS: more tube goodness that makes you melt into the music. Layers. More feeling, more toe-tapping. 10x livelier. Super expansive soundstage! I need a sledgehammer to knock down the walls so my system can breathe. Sounds far more natural than the TII could ever do. Most importantly, the Lampi brings the air. Whereas the Terminator was the king of detail, the Lampi offers spaciousness. With the TII, you can "hear" the recording studio, but with the Lampi, what you hear is air. It's difficult to explain, but the Lampi is much more engaging and fun to listen to. CONS: The bass was tighter with the TII. BOTTOM LINE -- The sonic improvement is so compelling that I can't go back to a solid-state DAC, preamp or amp. It's true -- tubes rule! FINAL THOUGHTS: the goal of assembling your hifi system should be to hear as much blackness and space as possible. It's the space between the notes that allows you to relax and enjoy the music. The less you hear, the more you feel.
A SS amp (or preamp) is gonna sound like a SS amp regardless of whether a tube DAC is in front of it.
I do love the sound of tubes. All that systems that I have loved has tubes. I have a great SS amp and looking at a Tube Preamp maybe even a tube DAC. I am located in Okc OK. Not any stores around here that I know of.
After having lived with a tubed DAC for a while, I will never go back to an SS DAC. To me SS DAC's sound too strident, especially on things like massed strings. IME, tubes have the biggest impact in the DAC, 2nd biggest impact in the preamp and 3rd biggest impact in the main amp. It makes sense if you think that any grit from the DAC will be amplified by the preamp and the amp. So best practice is to not have any grit from the DAC in the first place.
I read you had a Lampizator DAC. I was trying to find some pictures internals of the Baltic 4 but I haven't been able to find much online. Have you ever had a chance to peak inside of yours. Lampizator also has the volume control. I haven't read much about what people say about the volume control on the Baltic 4. Have you heard any info about it?
Sold the Lampi because I liked my modded iFi iDSD Pro better.
I didn't say you won't get some degree of tube flavor if you use a tube DAC or preamp. If you only have one component with tubes, then you still have a predominately solid-state system. I'm stating the obvious because some audiophiles may fall under the illusion that if you install a single tube component, your whole system miraculously becomes "tube-sounding" because the SS amp amplifies the tube sound in front of it. That's not exactly how it works. The signal is filtered through transistors and other parts that impart a SS sonic signature. It's perfectly fine if you want to "season" your sound with a tube component, but don't think you're gonna achieve a similar sound vs. an all-tube system.
Of course....lol. Tell me about your modded ifi DSD.
