Nice, congrats on the Allnic chain! How are you liking the chain so far since you got it for a couple of months?
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Tbh I was indifferent for a long while. It was definitively better than my previous DAC but… by that much? I didn’t think so at first, and I considered returning it. Part of it was finding the “right’" tubes, and probably at this point my digital source became the bottleneck but… I ended up trying a graphene sluggo in place of the stock fuse and this thing opened up big time. I felt like I got a taste of what that “next level" would sound like.
As far as tubes go, I rolled 3 different 12au7, but I felt like the mullards (square long plate I think? Whatever the “rarer” ones are… I forgot all those tube names after finding the right ones lol) were very close to the “ideal” ones for the best sound. The 7258 I replaced were Sylvania, which are pretty much considered the “best” to get. Plus I couldn’t find any of the other brands lol.
For sound, my one word descriptor would be, “beautiful." It’s a very pristine and transparent sounding DAC. Does everything to a high level, but I think it does exceptionally well with tone/timbre, super real and authentic. The synergy with the 300b is sublime, especially when it comes to the bass. If you had told me a 300b amp could “do bass” this well, maybe I’d laugh inside my head. Although it’s not the fastest and tightest, it’s very very natural and nimble.
Overall, exceptional performance and synergy. It’s not a DAC if you want one that does one thing exceptionally well, but it’s one that does everything well to a high enough level with greater focus on transparency and clarity. But I suppose that should be a given for a DAC at this level.
As far as those extra upsampling and dsd conversion features… it’s fine, sounds good on some albums and some not so much. Simply put, I wouldn’t go out of my way to use them, but it’s passable for me to prefer it on occasion.
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Thanks for sharing! I always been a little intimidated on upgrading my DAC since it feels expensive just to get the next upgrade and it feels hard to guess on how it well affect the rest of the chain down the road. Overall upgrade across the chain to me is an always a good upgrade even if it’s not dramatic.
What was your previous DAC before btw?
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Just don’t ask about their new cable line or d15 DAC and you’ll be fine! 
Fwiw, Allnic is supposed to come out with sub $10k products in the near future (trickle-down tech). I’m not sure if a DAC is included in that, but I think it’s safe to assume there will be. Afaik, the upcoming 2a3 amp will be below in price to the 300b.
Linnenberg Satie DAC from Germany
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