Jolida 100A CD Player and Tube DAC Units

[braxus]

Anyone recommend a tube external DAC unit to plug CD/DVD players into? Hopefully 24 bit and 192 KHZ sampling.

Other option is the Jolida 100A tube CD player. Any comments?

[stuwee]

Hey brax, my advice is to put the tubes elsewhere in the signal path, just my preference. Buy the newest, latest, most expensive DAC you can afford, it's just gonna be outdated next year anyway *grin*

*spin* Lp's Scott *Hi5*

btw, I do love SACD's, wish that hadn't gone the way of the minidisk.....

[braxus]

As others have commented- tubes takes the edge off CDs and warms up the sound. I may have to run my Rotel SS gear for some years yet, so I don't have the option to use tubes elsewhere.

[stuwee]

As others have commented- tubes takes the edge off CDs and warms up the sound. I may have to run my Rotel SS gear for some years yet, so I don't have the option to use tubes elsewhere.

Point taken, I haven't heard the Jolinda deck, I know BAT made a nice tube CD player that you could get for a song when they come up for sale. Just a thought.

[Socal Sam]

A tube DAC can make a difference on SS but IME, this is just a half measure. I'd rather go full tube or full SS.

[R.Daneel]

Anyone recommend a tube external DAC unit to plug CD/DVD players into? Hopefully 24 bit and 192 KHZ sampling.

Other option is the Jolida 100A tube CD player. Any comments?

Hello Braxus!

As far as I know, the Jolida is a good cd player. It got some fine marks in the press (UK's HIFI choice). I would also recommend cd players from Prima Luna and Unison Research. For DACs I'd suggest a Musical Fidelity with tube output stage but it isn't cheap.

But I would really suggest you go DIY as there are options that are easily available and the total sum of parts is less than 400$. I can tell you from personal experience that for this kind of money you can get yourself a DAC with top-of-the-line 24/192 chip, multiple inputs including usb, high-quality power transformers for analog and digital sections independantly and a analog tube stage with Mundorf prestige caps and tantal resistors. It's difficult I know but believe me, that 400$ DAC will match any 2000$ commecially available DAC.

If I may ask, why do want it to be a tube DAC? There are plenty good olid-state ones out there. They are good and affordable - I'd say Cambridge Audio DacMagic is a good choice.