[BrandonB]

I haven't been online recently but I check out the conversation every couple of days.  I started a thread awhile back about tube or no tube with your GR Research Speakers and it has been going strong for sometime now.  I must say there are some pretty talented builders in the forum and I envy them because the DIY stuff looks superb.  I would like to take it one step further and ask what type of DAC prefer with your GR Research speakers.  I have talked to some who say they have to have a tube DAC.  We can even take it a step further and talk about the R2R etc.  I know that it's not about the chip but the power supply etc. So let me know what you think.

[Tyson]

In my upstairs music system I use this bit of insane Ukranian kit:

https://www.abbasaudio.com/en/2024/02/12/new-model-of-dac-5-0se-6bl7-output-stage/





And this is what I'm running in my downstairs HT setup (2 channel only):

https://ankaudiokits.com/product/dac4-1x-professional-edition/

[BrandonB]

In my upstairs music system I use this bit of insane Ukranian kit:

https://www.abbasaudio.com/en/2024/02/12/new-model-of-dac-5-0se-6bl7-output-stage/





And this is what I'm running in my downstairs HT setup (2 channel only):

https://ankaudiokits.com/product/dac4-1x-professional-edition/

I have gone to the Abbas website but it is pretty overwhelming to me.  I also have checked out the ANK DAC's.  They are really cool looking on the inside.  What do you think about them.  How do they rank in your list of DAC's you have had.  Have you ever listened to The Audio Mirror WAVE DAC or the Aries-Cerat Helene?

[mkrawcz]

ANK DACs sound great. However, the owner of the company is very shady. I’ve had two very bad experiences with him and cannot recommend doing business with him. Same with Tubes4hifi. These companies are operating by the skin of their teeth and it’s not worth it as a customer.

[BrandonB]

ANK DACs sound great. However, the owner of the company is very shady. I’ve had two very bad experiences with him and cannot recommend doing business with him. Same with Tubes4hifi. These companies are operating by the skin of their teeth and it’s not worth it as a customer.

I do hate to hear that.  I don't think anyone is getting rich off of HiFi and running a company would be very difficult an easy to get underwater if your not careful. 

[nlitworld]

Never dealt with ANK but have worked with current and former owner of Tubes4hifi. Nice guys, good communication for purchase and great sounding kits for the $, but they definitely had a hands off approach for teaching you the way through their kit. If you're jumping in DIY with them, you better understand the basics and not ask remedial questions taking up their time. I could see ANK doing the same thing. Really it's the same in automotive industry as well where if someone wants to diy a paint job, we can give a couple little tips and give them data sheets on product, but we can't make a full step by step tutorial on how to paint a car for you.  I save that level of help for people painting speakers on A.C.

[Tyson]

I bought my ANK used so no issues with the owner (and a great deal).  ANK is built like a $10k DAC if you did not go the DIY route.  Similar to GR Research speakers - both punch WAY above their price point. 

I had a Lampizator for a while and I like both the ANK and the Abbas much better than it and it was way, way more expensive:



I like the ANK and the Abbas about the same.  Both are the most analog sounding DAC's I've ever heard.

[mkrawcz]

The issue had with Tubes4hifi is I ordered a SP13 preamp and after 6 weeks was getting no response from him at all. Site says it takes about 3 weeks to ship out. If he’s busy, that’s fine, but don’t ignore people. I ended up filling a PayPal dispute and getting my money back. The problem with ANK is he doesn’t send you what you paid for, a compete kit. He leaves numerous parts out of it and it’s not accidental. I’ve caught him in numerous lies.

[BrandonB]

The issue had with Tubes4hifi is I ordered a SP13 preamp and after 6 weeks was getting no response from him at all. Site says it takes about 3 weeks to ship out. If he’s busy, that’s fine, but don’t ignore people. I ended up filling a PayPal dispute and getting my money back. The problem with ANK is he doesn’t send you what you paid for, a compete kit. He leaves numerous parts out of it and it’s not accidental. I’ve caught him in numerous lies.

Does the ANK guy leave out expensive parts?  I have read that about ANK from more than one place on the net.

[WGH]

BrandonB - did you ever get a tube amp you asked about in February 2024?
https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=188520.0


The guys in our local audio group own a lot of great sounding equipment. I have listened to the GR Research NX-Studios in two different rooms. In the large room the speakers were horrible, too bright and shouty, in the small analog room the NX-Studio's were driven by the Line Magnetic 218ia integrated amp and they sounded wonderful. The big room's electronics was solid state, the small room had tubes and a turntable. Based on my limited experience I would recommend going with a tube DAC with the NX-Studio.

Three guys in our group use ANK DACs, two 5.1 Signatures and a 2.1 with boutique parts. They compared the 5.1 and 2.1 and said the sound was very, very close. I have listened to all three but at different times and haven't uncovered any sonic flaws. The ANK guys have also listened to my HoloAudio May KTE DAC and a PS Audio DirectStream DAC MK2 and have no desire to switch.

One thing solid state DACs do that ANK DACs can't is play hi-res and DSD audio. The ANK DAC plays PCM files up to 24 bit/96 kHz. The HoloAudio plays both DSD and PCM in every resolution available which allows me to download and listen to music recorded in DSD or hi-resolution PCM in the native format without down sampling, all the music from Sound Liason is an example.


There are a couple of guys that will fix a botched DIY ANK DAC assembly or build a new one from a kit and send you an assembled DAC. My friend has their names and contact info, he used one guy turn his spaghetti in a box ANK DAC into a working ANK DAC.

[mkrawcz]

Does the ANK guy leave out expensive parts?  I have read that about ANK from more than one place on the net.

He would leave out things like half the resistors, the silver RCA jacks, the Audionote internal input cable, things like that. Then he just takes the gamble that you will just go ahead and buy $200 in parts yourself and not contact him about it. He does sell the "Professional" edition which is a prebuilt version of the dac. You could accept the risk and go that route. At least you know it will be a completed DAC. From that point, they can be serviced without much fuss if things go bad.

[Tyson]

A 4.1 ANK DAC running red book files sounds better in my system than an Holo May running DSD files.

[BrandonB]

BrandonB - did you ever get a tube amp you asked about in February 2024?

You know that's a good question.  I have been playing music thru my MacBook straight into my amp.  Not optimal!  I'm having a preamp built from SMc Audio it should be done in a few weeks and that has taken forever so I've just been researching  DAC's until it's finished.  Oh both my amp and preamp are SMc Audio solid state so crossing my fingers that it works with a tube DAC.   My wife has allowed me a nice budget for the DAC but I want to make the right choice. Ever since I took her down to listen to Danny's system at GR Research she has been on board.  He played some Stevie Ray Vaughn and she thought she was in the room with him... So now she is a big supporter of nice equipment.    There is a used Aries-Cerat Helene that I have been looking at and also I have talked to Vlad at Audio Mirror.  Both of these DAC's may still be to edgy.  What do you think?  Can you send me the name of the ANK builders I will give them a call and see what they have to say.    I know those DAC's are allot of money but If they work with what I have that would be great.   

[WGH]

Can you send me the name of the ANK builders I will give them a call and see what they have to say.

Our audio group came through with a few ways to get a pre-built ANK DAC

The ANK Partner page has a link for professionally built DACs
"Please contact Brian Smith, ANK Director, for enquires on kits and professional builds for USA and Canada Europe and ROW- please see other dealers/partners on this page for specific geographic locations."
https://ankaudiokits.com/partners/


The ANK webside has a professionally built 2.1 Signature available right now for $2650
https://ankaudiokits.com/product/dac-2-1-signature-professional-edition/


The ANK website has a professionally built 4.1 available right now for $3500
https://ankaudiokits.com/product/dac4-1x-professional-edition/


The ANK website has a professionally built DAC 5.1x Professional Edition available right now for $6,000.00
https://ankaudiokits.com/product/dac-5-1-professional-edition/


Steve Sank is willing to build you a unit, he is very qualified and does excellent quality work. I will send you a PM with his phone number


Chip emailed me and said he will build you a DAC, he currently uses a 5.1 Signature and just finished a ANK L5 Mentor Preamp. I will PM you his contact info.


One advantage to building your own or having a DAC custom built instead of buying from ANK is substituting boutique parts that will make your ANK DAC uniquely your own. Here is a list of parts a friend used in his ANK DAC:

Audionote DAC 5.1 Signature upgrades:

    Silver (.999) signal wire 16 gauge, instead of 18 gauge supplied copper
    High voltage and high current hookup wire 16 gauge
    Printed assembly manual from latest released version online
    Six 1/4 watt resistors on Super Regulator board replaced with 1 watt
    Basic rubber feet replaced with large aluminium/rubber footers
    Small rubber washers for mounting power transformers and chokes
    Super-Reg board: United Chemi-con capacitors replaced with audio Elna Silmic of same values, sometimes higher voltage
    Analog board: United Chemi-con capacitors replaced with audio Elna Silmic
    RCA panel jack replaced with WBT RCA jack for aux S/PDIF connection (for looks really, who cares if it makes any difference I won't be running a CD transport any time soon)
    Front-mounting rotary switch and gold knob optional addition instead of rear toggle on/off (I may not wire rear switch at all) Long 120v live run will be high grade sheilded and grounded
    Replacement 5x20mm fusses (possibly better audio grade, but in my mind they are all pretty stupid)
    Copper tape for making a flux band around the smaller choke (more a learning experience, not sure it will make a difference, but it shouldn't hurt)
    V-Caps upgrade from Audionote caps, purchased from ANK (suggestion from Brian at ANK)
    Fourteen Non-magnetic Tantalum resistors all replaced on analog board, from ANK (I love these resistors for signal paths)
    I will use a familiar USB board: WaveIO with latest clock, opposed to supplied Chinese brand of questionable origin?
    Added 5 volt power connector for outboard linear power supply instead of using USB cable with computer supplied voltage leg
    I will experiment with different rectifier tubes besides the one supplied, 5Z3PJ (new), Jan5931 (NOS), WE274B (Psvane), 5U4G (whatever), etc
    Experiment with the two analog tubes ECC82/12AU7 and ECC99 (EH, JJ, Sylvania, Phillips, etc)
    Power transformers mounted in slightly different location with 90 degree turns
    Aluminum panel with Mu-Metal shielding between digital/analog side and power supply side

[BrandonB]

Our audio group came through with a few ways to get a pre-built ANK DAC

Thank you for all that information.  I will give them a shout.

[BGA]

I went a slightly more affordable route with a MHDT Pagoda with 6922 tube rather than the 5670 tube and I find the sound wonderful. I have never tried the ANK DACs but would like to one day, just not in the cards right now. The 6922 tube works well in my combination as it gives a bit more lively presentation.

The only other DACs I've used are the internal one from my Bluesound streamer and a miniDSP SHD, no none tube docs of midrange or higher quality.

I run form a DODD tube preamp to the DAC than to a pair of ANK 300b mono blocks. This combination is the best I had in my room so far and makes my NX-Otica's disappear and my room sound way bigger than it is.

Some of the wonderful sound of the tube docs recommended here could be that they are R2R DACS which sound different than delta-sigma dacs. As a disclaimer, one thing I am not is an expert on DACs, this is just my experience in my one little world, ha.

[nlitworld]

Yeah playing around with MHDT dacs is one that takes some searching to get it right, then nails it when you get the combo. For me, a few little diy upgrades and tiny Sonicap bypass caps for a little more top end clarity and WE396A tube is just  . Opting for a smoother sound to begin with gives you options for bringing in more dynamics and sparkle. Taming a bright dac is much harder IMHO.

[BrandonB]

In my upstairs music system I use this bit of insane Ukranian kit:

https://www.abbasaudio.com/en/2024/02/12/new-model-of-dac-5-0se-6bl7-output-stage/





And this is what I'm running in my downstairs HT setup (2 channel only):

Does you Abbas have Chokes?  I read that choked power supplies are suppier to non choked and I see them in the really hi-end equipment.  I also like the unique look of your upstairs equipment.  If you don't you should leave the top off your Abbas DAC.  Do you think the Abbas is a better sounding DAC than the ANK? 

https://ankaudiokits.com/product/dac4-1x-professional-edition/