[Jabar]

Hey all,

I've purchased an assembled DIY tube DAC from Taiwan and although the sound of the DAC is beyond belief for the price I paid ($450), it has some noise issues. I've tried many, many different things to isolate the noise and I'm still stumped.

I would like to bring this to someone who can take a professional look at it and maybe identify some grounding problems, etc...

Does anyone know of a good place in CT that would have the knowledge to do such work?

Thanks in advance for anyone's input.

J.

[richidoo]

Stereo Surgeons is in E Hartford. Ken Bernacke is a great audio technician, specializing in tuner upgrades. He is well regarded among the FM Tuner circles as one of the best repairmen in the country. I sent Sansui tuner to him last summer for rescusitation and he did a fantastic job for a great price. Modded caps, cleaned and aligned, burned in thoroughly. When I had hum from antenna grounding he advised me how to fix for free. Not the quickest turnaround for tuner rebuild, but the quality and caring is there. I would certainly recommend him to anyone.

Another option is to mail it off, and if that appeals to you, I can recommend Alex Lok at The Analog Store in Raleigh. He is certified service center for McIntosh, Plinius, Quad,  bunch of others. He is an old school audiophile technician, great with tube equipment, he can fix any high-end audio analog electronics, due to 30 years experience he can fly seat of pants when no schematic available or when a bad design needs major changes. Disclosure: he is a personal friend but fixes my stuff too. He has good prices and relatively fast.
Rich

[Jabar]

rich, that's awesome. I'll head over to see Ken ASAP and have him take a look at the DAC. If he can't fix it, I may turn to your buddy.... 'cause all I can find on this DAC (which is excellent in all other aspects) is written in Chinese.... and my Mandarin is quite poor these days!

Thanks for your help.