[analogmart]

Hi Tan,
I'm using CAL Delta Transport. Hagclock is on the way for modding this old machine.
Belden digital cable is currently use. (replaced Eccosse and VH audio pulsar IC)
After Prom Dac, signal go to TVC REF 4.

I'm not sure about thin laminated donut core (0.05mm thickness) in my DAC but cable itself is black color.
What color you have? 

Two signal cables after output transformer use red and white cable with 
promitheusaudio screened on it skin. 

Mart,

[holderlin]

Has anyone communicated with Nicholas lately?  I've been waiting for a usb module for the Promi DAC for almost 5 months.  He hasn't responded to my last three e-mails asking about its status.  Usually he responds promptly, so I'm just wondering if something has happened.  Has  anyone ordered and received the usb module?
Thanks,
Bob

[spud]

Has anyone communicated with Nicholas lately?  I've been waiting for a usb module for the Promi DAC for almost 5 months.  He hasn't responded to my last three e-mails asking about its status.  Usually he responds promptly, so I'm just wondering if something has happened.  Has  anyone ordered and received the usb module?
Thanks,
Bob

 

Five months! Wow! Thats insane. Good luck. You must really like it.

spud

[F-100]

Has anyone communicated with Nicholas lately?  I've been waiting for a usb module for the Promi DAC for almost 5 months.  He hasn't responded to my last three e-mails asking about its status.  Usually he responds promptly, so I'm just wondering if something has happened.  Has  anyone ordered and received the usb module?
Thanks,
Bob

 

Five months! Wow! Thats insane. Good luck. You must really like it.

spud

Hmm... You showed up here on the forum only a few days and most of your posts are attacked against Promitheous. What is your intent?

[tanchiro58]

Has anyone communicated with Nicholas lately?  I've been waiting for a usb module for the Promi DAC for almost 5 months.  He hasn't responded to my last three e-mails asking about its status.  Usually he responds promptly, so I'm just wondering if something has happened.  Has  anyone ordered and received the usb module?
Thanks,
Bob

Hey Bob,

Most of my second system's components are from Nicholas Chua at Promitheus Audio which I only took at most two to three months to get them. I talked to Nicholas last week he told me my Apollo preamp will be done in a month. Any new products of Promitheus Audio should have tested thoroughly until he got a best sound out of them. You also should know best sound quality products with affordable prices conducted by the owner himself usually need more times not like a mass products through dealers.

[spud]

Has anyone communicated with Nicholas lately?  I've been waiting for a usb module for the Promi DAC for almost 5 months.  He hasn't responded to my last three e-mails asking about its status.  Usually he responds promptly, so I'm just wondering if something has happened.  Has  anyone ordered and received the usb module?
Thanks,
Bob

 

Five months! Wow! Thats insane. Good luck. You must really like it.

spud

Hmm... You showed up here on the forum only a few days and most of your posts are attacked against Promitheous. What is your intent?

             I did think I was attacking Promitheus. Sorry if you thought so. Just telling it like it is. I have no agenda against Promitheus. Don't you think 5 months is a long time to wait? Just adding my 2 cents thats all. It may be a good product for the price but 5 months. C'mon man, lighten up and smell the Roses.

spud 

[brynaus]

Hi - Yes, same story with me.  I've been waiting a few months for my USB module as well.  Oh well - can't win them all and I am VERY happy with the sound of the DAC (currently using with a Trends UD-10 USB convertor).

[holderlin]

Nicholas got in touch with me and said he didn't get my emails.  I know he's had problems in past with spam filters, etc.   He said the module should be ready to send out soon.  I'm looking forward to hearing the module with the dac. 

Bob

[brynaus]

Nicholas also responded to me to state that the USB module had taken a little longer to develop than anticipated, but that it should be arriving shortly.  I am very happy with this and have always been extremely happy with the DAC (see my first post in this tread - where I also mentioned that I knew Nicholas would send the USB module only when he was entirely happy with it, which he now is) !      Now to await more info on the TVC Signature line 

[tanchiro58]

To be more happier with the DAC you should tweak it more with Black Hole Pad (BHP). This is the link to my gallery
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?action=gallerylastup&cat=0&pos=0
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?action=gallerylastup&cat=0&pos=1

[Quiet Earth]

This is a very educational thread. I have really enjoyed reading the whole thing. Thank you all.

I am currious about the choice of stainless steel for the plate though. I always thought that a non magnetic baseplate was a better choice for most circuits, even those that are transformer coupled. Maybe someone with more knowledge can chime in and set me straight. Also, I see a lot of talk about bypassing an output capacitor. Is there a coupling capacitor just before the O/P transformer?? That doesn't make sense to me. Perhaps it's the power supply you are all talking about. Again, someone can chime in and set me straight on this too. Thanks in advance.

Finally, I too am a little leary of jumping in, even though it looks like a lot of DAC for the money. I had a DAC AH at my house for a while and it sounded promising but it was very disconnected. Actually, it was blatently distorted on complex musical pasages. It's just a pile of parts in the garage now. Lesson learned. The Promitheus and Mhdt offerings look very tempting but I don't want to get another DAC that cannot handle complex musical passages either. BTW, this has nothing to do with tubes, op amps, capacitor tweaks or transformers. I'm talking about the basic DAC design. For example, the Audio Note Dacs don't have this problem at all. In fact, quite the opposite. Is this distortion phenomenon with complex muscical passages a thing of the past in today's sub $1000 NOS dacs?

Thanks to everyone for any experience you can share.

[John151]

I am currious about the choice of stainless steel for the plate though. I always thought that a non magnetic baseplate was a better choice for most circuits, even those that are transformer coupled.

Stainless Steel is non-magnetic. 

[Quiet Earth]

Thanks John, I didn't know that! 
One down, two to go!

QE

[miklorsmith]

I had an MHDT Paradisea on loan for a while and didn't think it had a problem with complex stuff.

[tanchiro58]

Is this distortion phenomenon with complex muscical passages a thing of the past in today's sub $1000 NOS dacs?

I have owned an Altmann Attraction DAC in my main system and Promitheus DAC in my second system I don't experience any distortion with complex music passages at all.

[GHM]

I've had both versions of the MHDT Paradisea and the Audio Sector Dac. Which was also a NON OS Dac. None of them had any problems with complex music. I listen too music and watch movies through my current Paradisea..no problems at all.

[Quiet Earth]

Thanks guys. Your comments are very helpful. FWIW, I bought the little Ah mostly as an experiment, for fiddling around and discovery. I guess that it's not a fair representation of the bargain DACs that are manufactured today. This is very good news indeed.

Right now my baseline for 2 channel CD playback is the Audio Note 2.1X signature dac. I've been using it for quite some time now. Right or wrong, that's what I'm used to. I have a Benchmark DAC that I use for my meager home recording studio hobby and it's really wearing on me. I would like to get something that is more in line with my Audio Note DAC so that I don't have to mentally switch gears, if that makes any sense.

Anyway, that's why I was asking all of the questions. I do appreciate all of the information that is being exchanged here. Thanks!

QE

[NewBuyer]

...I have a Benchmark DAC that I use for my meager home recording studio hobby and it's really wearing on me. I would like to get something that is more in line with my Audio Note DAC so that I don't have to mentally switch gears, if that makes any sense...

So, what's wrong with the Benchmark DAC? Just curious...

[dainapoo]

Hi,

Just thought I'd chime in.  Sorry for the long post, but bear with me.  Been following for awhile.  I'm an old audiophile - was in the business "back in the day" - 70's actually, and into the early 80's.  Have heard and sold some great stuff.  Been away for awhile but finally started upgrading a 20 year old Dahlquist based system about a year ago.  I'm still on a strict budget, but have done lots of reading during the entire time since I left and began making some choices within the past year.  My Dahlquist's were due for replacement.  I actually started by replacing them with some used Vandersteen 2CE's.  Nice - they do alot right - but one day I'll probably go the planar/electrostat route.  Since, in some ways, I missed the entire CD era- having owned nothing more than run of the mill big box store machines, and since I had been downloading music since the late 90's, I began to search for a digital format that made sense for me.  I also have an extensive record collection, and even after letting my Linn go, I still had and had taken good care of my first turntable - a vintage Thorens TD- 160, from 1975 - stock with a new birch bottom and some homemade feet.  Anyway, I settled on a Squeezebox early this year, with an eye to eventually purchasing an outboard DAC.  Nowadays, I rip CD's, using EAC (Exact Audio Copy) into WAV or Flac files.  And I recently turned my old computer into a dedicated music server.  In the meantime, I purchased a Conrad Johnson MV 60SE on Audiogon, fulfilling an old dream of owning some tube gear.  I'm happy with it, and it is certainly an improvement over the amp sections of the vintage NAD and Yamaha integrateds that I had left over from before.  But this meant that I still only had the NAD or Yamaha's preamp section to run the CJ through.  After lots of reading and listening in local shops in the Seattle area and lots of thinking about what I really wanted to do (what about home theater etc..), I decided that I really wanted to go with the simplest signal path I could find.  I started checking out, reading about and listening to passives and stumbled onto the TVC method.  I read about the Music First, the Paradesia etc. and somewhere in there, stumbled onto the Promitheus TVC.  After a number of emails with Nicholas, I finally took a leap of faith on a basic Promitheus TVC SE, with 4 single ended RCA inputs.  I live in an apartment, second floor with thin walls, so I have to keep the volume down quite frequently.  As soon as I placed the TVC in my system it was apparent that I had made the biggest improvement to its sound to date.  And, as you may have read, by design, it sounds great at lower volumes.  (Of course, I like it loud too and with my relatively small room, I could create plenty of spl's with this setup). 

I had lots of ideas about what to do next, and had originally thought about upgrading my analog gear, but finally settled on simply getting a new cartridge and an entry level Cambridge Audio phono preamp for now, due, in part, to my continued emails with Nicholas, who kept encouraging me to try his DAC.  Nicholas is a gem of a person to work with.  Incredibly patient with questions about inputs and options.  Bottom line is that I finally decided to take a second leap and give it a whirl.  Customer service goes a long way with me.

It arrived last week, and straight out of the box, the sound of music coming out of my system with the Promitheus DAC is orders of magnitudes better than the stock DAC in the Squeezebox.  Perhaps at this point you're saying 'well, geez, I hope so!', but really, we audiophiles tend to spend a lot of money for what, at least from a big picture point of view, is nearly infinitesimally small amounts of improvement.  This is not small.  With selections I'm very familiar with, I hear nuances, new instruments and additional voices that were simply not audible in any previous version of any of my systems over the years, and immediately apparent compared to what I had a week ago!  It's early, but I only expect this to improve. 

At this point, I'm contemplating stopping for awhile and just enjoying the music for the first time since I started upgrading.  The sound is dynamic, smooth, not bright or muffled - just excellent timbers of acoustical instruments, great slam on electric or electronic bass and very realistic vocals.  Separation of individual instruments are way improved, and my sound stage is much, much higher, as well as wider and deeper.  It does not take an audiophile's ear to hear most of these differences, in my opinion. 

The latest version of my system is still not super hi- end, but it's well respected, and well rounded, and now, very musical.  Nick's DAC and TVC are remarkable.  Being a vinyl fan, yet not dogmatic about it, I had still preferred my vintage analog system for a good portion of my collection in which I had both analog and digital versions.  Now, only a very few, if any, analog versions of my collection are likely to be preferred over their digital counterparts with the Promi DAC in place.  The pace, the PRAT (as they say), the homogeneity of sound is all their with the Promitheus equipment in place.  The TVC was a big improvement in my system, but the DAC was even bigger.   For now, I have no tweaks planned internally for either, but, in time, perhaps.  I've listened to a few other DAC's locally, but I'd venture to say that my experience with other DAC's is not as extensive as some.  However, my ears are still good and I trust them and comments from others who have casually dropped by during my latest rounds of upgrades have continuously commented on the improved sound.  I know I'm on the right track.  I have no reservations whatsoever recommending Nicholas's DAC (and his TVC too)!

Thanks!

[tanchiro58]

Dainapoo,

I am glad that you like Promitheus DAC  and believe your DAC is a new version one compared to the first version I have own. Does your DAC have a wooden board built under the pcb board? Nicholas told me that the idea of a spruce board under the DAC board (like in Altmann Attraction DAC)makes it sounds more musical instead of more digital. He has some kind of an exotic wood from Malaysia and build into the DAC. What is your opinion about your DAC soundwise?

Regards,
Tan