Inexpensive Upgradable Tube DAC

fredt300b

Active Member
Occasionally I find a product that offers several magnitudes more value than other similarly priced "mainstream" products, and here are two that I have bought recently. I have no doubt if a mainstream distributor sourced these from the same OEM manufacturer and used their brand name instead of the "Lite Audio" badge they would sell for quite a bit more. Many audiophiles need the reassurance of a brand name and that's OK; I would hesitate to buy a product costing several thousands from an unknown, but these are so inexpensive that a worst case DOA situation would not be a catastrophic event in my life.

Here's one that's inexpensive by high end audio standards, sounds very good in its stock form, and is easily upgradable. It's the $368 Lite Audio DAC-60. It arrived just yesterday, so I hesitate to comment on its sound except to say that it sounds surprisingly good right out of the box. The insides are impressive: Two R-core trannies, six separate regulated power supplies, two 24/96 Burr Brown PCM-1704 dacs (one for each channel), discrete parts in the 3rd order low pass filter, tube output stage with EH6922 tubes (no op amps). The 1704 DAC chips, which are among Burr Brown's best (0.003% THD, 110dB dynamic range, 120dB S/N), are used in high end players like the $5K Shanling CD-T300. UPS air shipping (one week) from Hong Kong adds another $95 to the price. Information at http://eshop.diyclub.biz/

Somebody has posted photos of their upgrade of the tube output stage of a similar Lite Audio DAC, the DAC-72 (identical except for the DAC chips) on the Asylum board. http://db.audioasylum.com/cgi/m.mpl?forum=digital&n=108813&highlight=Lite+Audio+DAC-38&session=

If $368 is a budget buster you might want to consider the DAC-AH at $135. I have upgraded the output caps on mine. The DAC chips in this one offer less resolution than the BB's in the DAC-60, but this model uses eight in parallel to reduce the THD and improve the resolution by averaging the output. This one is a non-oversampling DAC (no oversampling chip and no output filter in the signal path) with op amps instead of tubes in the analog stage. This DAC has a good soundstage combined with a very warm presentation, making it especially useful with systems that would benefit from more "body" like many SET / single driver speaker combinations.

I'll bring both to the October 8 Lone Star Bottlehead meeting at Wardsweb's house in San Antonio so others can hear them and possibly post some unbiased comments about them. :thmbsp:
 
First Upgrade

They created lots of room for upgrades when they built this DAC on a full size chassis instead of the usual 8X10 you find many DACs in. The first upgrade was very simple: I applied chassis damping material to the top cover and all the accessible place inside the chassis. Then I replaced the resistor in the CRC tube section high voltage power supply with a 10 henry choke. Very easy to do from above without having to remove the circuit board.
 
I'm thinking about getting the DAC 60.

What upgrades does the DAC need and why (I'm a novice - so I'm looking for a little help understanding and appreciating exactly what they are and what they do).

I found the DAC 60 @ http://www.gr-research.com/components/lite_dacs.htm for $470 shipping inclusive, and you can order it with Sonic Craft mods for an additional $290 parts & Labor. The site doesn't explain the mods though.

I'd also like to get it with a USB input (I use it with my HTPC). Any thoughts there?

Also, what is the difference between the tubed vs. non-tubed DACs?

Thanks, in advance, for any help.
 
:sigh: I am really new here and have a really novice question.....how or where do you connect a DAC seperate to an existing CD player. Is it a technical/ internal connection? TIA, Chuck
 
If your CD player has a digital output, and it matches the input format of your DAC, you can use the cdp as a transport, and the DAC would do its thing, and send the analog signal to your amp.
 
I'm curious whether anyone who attended the aforementioned Lone Star Bottleheads meeting and had an opportunity to audition this unit would care to comment??

Fred.... any further modes contemplated with your unit? How is it performing now?
 
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