Maverick Audio Tube Magic D2

Divotdog

"I can fix it Grampa"
This just arrived today, it was well packed and showed up on my doorstep within three days of placing my order. First impressions upon opening the box were that it is a well built, relatively heavy and very nice looking piece of equipment; this one came with the upgraded Vintage GE tube.

Listening impressions, this is my first DAC so I really have nothing to compare it to other than my vinyl front end, right now it is on my garage system that consists of My PC to an Airport Express, Toslink cable to the Maverick Audio DAC, Adcom 555 II preamp, and Adcom 535 II amp to Klipsch LaScala speakers.

Right out of the box when I initially fired it up I thought that I may have just made a $270 mistake, the sound was thin and no better than the AE by itself or any budget CD player, fortunately I had read that some other users had run into this, so I just dropped the volume and sent it a signal for a couple of hours, I came back out to the garage and spent a little bit more time with it and it had improved significantly, we are at about ten hours on it now and it has a nice full sound and a very large soundstage and it continues to improve each time I come back to it, at this point it is very comparable to my garage table which is a Thorens TD 150 with a ProJect arm and an AT 440 Mla cart, we will give this a few more days and revisit it with a little bit more in depth A/B comparisons.
 
Both tubes and op amps can require significant burn in before they really start to sing.

The Maverick series of DACs are quite nice and a real deal at the price. I've got two myself ... a D1 and a D1+. I considered a D2, but was more interested in the analog in which got lost on the D2. That way I can play my turntable (or any analog source thru the DAC and get some of that toobie goodness there too.

Interesting progression there too. First came the D1, then the D2, then because enough of us were whining about the analog in, they came out with the D1+ that still has that PLUS the improved USB Tenor stage. Squeeky wheels and all that. <G>

Anyway, give it around 50 hours to break in fully.

For $270, I assUme you also got the OPA627 and tube upgrades? Real nice combo that's a substantial improvement over the base model.
 
$270 with shipping, I just got the tube upgrade, I will look into the opamp upgrade a little further down the road, I looked at the D1 and the D1+ also, but I am in the opposite boat, this will eventually find its way into my main system which is a tube preamp with monoblock tube amps and I just had no need for the preamp section in the DAC, although I must say that I am liking the tube out to the Adcom in the garage.
 
I ended up having to join TubeAholics Anonymous here ...

maverick-tubes.jpg


Not shown are a Tesla (spoken of highly and living up to the rep) and a Westinghouse and a couple Raytheons and ... somebody stops me!!

Slippery slope too ... I was enjoying that one little tube so much I just invested in a Latino ST-120 kit amplifier ... haven't even got it built yet and already got some extra tubes to play with. Wahoo!!

Does the D2 volume control work on the DAC side, or headphones only? I know the D1+ got rid of the bypass button on the front panel, but added a couple internal jumpers so you could put it in the loop if you wanted to be able to adjust the signal level.

d1_volume_control.jpg


That's handy for me on a quad system with external amps, as I can control the entire system with one knob and not have to mess with rebalancing on a volume change.
 
The D2 doesn’t have a volume control or a headphone amp, it does have two analog outs, one for the tube and one solid state, right now I have them both hooked up to my preamp so that I can switch between them, the tube out seems to smooth it out a little (at least while it is hooked up to the Adcoms), we will have to wait until I put it in my tube system to see what happens there.
 
The Dac now has a hair over 40 hours on it, I was able to compare it with my vinyl front end in the garage and it has compared very favorably, I have some house guests with small children right now that are here for an indefinite stay so my main tube system in the living room is unhooked and put away, at some point I will get it on that system and get a better idea of how it sounds.

The system in the garage is pretty revealing although unfortunately the room really sucks! With 40 hours the soundstage is quite wide (wider than the vinyl soundstage) and relatively (not quite as deep as the vinyl) it is considerably better than straight out of the AE on all counts. I must say that there is not a whole lot of difference between the solid state out and the tube out, there is a difference but it is very subtle, once I have it in the main system that may change, at this time I would say that if you are going to buy this to get that tube sound, it just doesn’t give you that sound, the tube does smooth out the sound a little but again it is very subtle.

I have sent the Dac with Bsujeep to give it a try in his main system for a few days, he will be able to compare it with the Dac in his AVR, and it will be interesting to find out his thoughts on it.
 
I would like to preface this by saying I have never owned a stand alone DAC and this is the first one I have heard. I got blind sided by the quality sound of digital after I got an HDMI connection for my computer several months ago and began playing with XBMC.

Well after spending most of the afternoon with the Maverick and listening in various configurations I have come to a conclusion.

I listened to FLAC files on an XP computer using JRiver or with an external HD hooked up to a Panasonic Blu-Ray player via USB.

Sources

Computer - HDMI to AVR
USB to D2

Panasonic Blu-Ray - HDMI to AVR
RCA to Pre-amp
S/PDIF to D2

DAC's

Maverick D2 (all sessions conducted using the tube output of D2 unless stated)

AVR

Amps

Yamaha RX-V663 (AVR) It has a Pure Direct button which was on for all listening.

Dynaco MkIII's (Tube)

Pre-Amps

AVR

DODD Battery powered tube buffer (on loan from local AKer)

Yamaha C-65

Speakers

DIY Tru-Horns :naughty:

These are my own variation of a Corn-Scala, The top end of out of a K-horn and the bass bin is a 15" Stephens Trusonic 150W in 7.7 cu ft boxes, crossover is the ALK Universal on the top and the AP on the bottom.

OK now to the Listening non double blind psycho-acousticly challenge non repeatable Session.

First

Computer - HDMI - AVR
Computer - USB - D2 - AVR

I swear I could not find anything really different between them VERY VERY close and pretty good. Nice image, soundstage, just a little bright.

Second

Panasonic Blu-Ray RCA - DODD - Dynacos
HDMI - AVR - DODD - Dynacos
S/PDIF - D2 - DODD - Dynacos

I used an external HD with FLAC files connected by USB to the Blu-Ray for the same source to the three inputs on the DODD.

Shut everything off, switched the speakers to the Dynacos, reconnected everything got some music playing through the Panny's internal DAC into the DODD and let the tubes warm up for a couple of hours.

Good lord that sounds good, what a soundstage the DODD throws even through the Panny's DAC. Can't hardly wait to do some listening.

Finally Tubes are warmed up and I switch to the D2, immediate improvement in tone, soundstage size, and musicality. This was Definitely Better! I really enjoyed the sound of the D2 and didn't want to stop listening. Finally I thought I better give the AVR a chance and the real difference between the two that I could hear was the AVR was brighter. Not bad, but I could tell it was different and the soundstage was not quite as deep. I could listen to it easily though.

I decided to unplug the Panny's RCA's and plug in the solid state out of the D2 so I could compare it also. It was in between the Tube out and the AVR.

When I tested the C-65 I could just barely tell a difference, and I mean I had to switch back and forth several times to pick it up. Similar to what I heard as the difference at Divotdogs when I first heard the D2.

Conclusion

I could only hear a real difference when I used the DODD as a pre, when I used anything else the AVR and the D2 were too close to call. The DODD is very revealing and I believe the quality of the equipment used with the D2 will help bring its attributes to bear.

EDIT: after 75 hours the difference between the tube out and all others is quite apparent.

preferences

I preferred the sound of the D2 using the USB input instead of the S/PDIF, but there are many variables that could have led this so YMMV.

USB - D2 (Tube out) - DODD

Very musical, detailed, open soundstage, rich tones.

I plan on giving the D2 a run against the vinyl rig tomorrow and will report back.

Bill

A day later and I summed up the vinyl experience in this thread. I would also like to add that the tube out is getting so much better that I now what to immediately switch back!
 
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What exactly didn't you like about the D1+?

I was kinda juggling mine a bit for a while.

mavericks_stacked.jpg


Got the Plus because the USB always sounded better than SPDIF on the D1, even at the lower resolution. The D1+ improves that substantially with the Tenor USB chipset, but just to complicate things, it also improves the SPDIF - at least on my system. Allowing that all SPDIF is NOT created equal as a lot depends on how it's integrated to the board, I did some switching back and forth.

Just to make things interesting, I ordered the D1+ with the standard op amps and tube, just so I could say I'd heard all the options. The Chinese tube didn't last long - it would have to improve a LOT on burn in to even come close to anything else I've got. I did switch the OPA627 chips into the D1+ after a while, and that tightened things up considerably.

So, back to the D1+, with the OPA627 chips and the GE upgrade tube and that's pretty much where I'm gonna stay.

Worth mentioning, any DAC can sound bad if it doesn't integrate well with your other components. I just find that the D1+ soundss better with what I got.

PS ... the GE tube is now well broken in, and I've got to say it's my favorite. That's comparing it to the vaunted WE JW 2C51 and Tesla 6CC42, which says a lot about the tube. I'll still roll em if I got em, but I really really like what I'm hearing right now.
 
I am considering bying a maverick DAC, it is one of my options. I am comparing D1+ and D2. If I look on the specs, the D2 is a dedicated DAC with different components, where the DAC 1+ has an analog input and can act as a preamp.

The DAC circuit and Opams are different in the the two.

From the comparison sheet on the website:
D1+: Crystal 4398, AD1955
D2: NS LF353N x2, BurrBrown OPA2604 x3

I am inclined to go for the D2 for the components, but the D1+ is appealing for extra features, like the analogue input.

I have to order it online so no comparison possible.:sigh:

Do the components in the D2 outweight performance compared to the D1+?
 
I am inclined to go for the D2 for the components, but the D1+ is appealing for extra features, like the analogue input.

I am sure by now you have made your decision... Which did you go for?

I have the D2 but I didn't buy it with the OPA627. I went to ebay to purchase three OPA627 but find there are multiple versions and not sure which one to get. OPA627AP, OPA627AU, OPA627BP etc

Does anyone know the correct ones to get? I suppose I can buy it from Maverick site directly, but seems to be double the cost versus buying from ebay. Although it may just be worth it pay the extra money and wait the extra shipping times?

Also, which tube does everyone prefer?

Any input would be awesome.
 
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There are a couple of huge Threads over on head-fi about all the Mods for the Maverick
 
I have the D2 but I didn't buy it with the OPA627. I went to ebay to purchase three OPA627 but find there are multiple versions and not sure which one to get. OPA627AP, OPA627AU, OPA627BP etc

Also, which tube does everyone prefer?

Maybe apples and oranges, but I checked my D1+ and Ryan supplied "AU" op amps with that. Difference being, the D1 and D1+ stacks two OPA627's on a Brown Dog converter to replace one "stock" LF232N, for a total of four OPA627's on board. I'm just assUming Maverick uses the same stock for all their stuff as any differences are more incremental. Kinda like, is that a 12AU7 or a 12AU7a ... to which the correct answer is ... "who cares"?

maverick-d1-opa627.jpg


Tube preferences are different for everyone based on their system, listening habits and preferences. I've got some real nice "designer" tubes here, including the old productions Western Electric 2C51 (and the later production WE 396A), as well as a Tesla 6CC42, but have been running a plain jane Sylvania for quite some time now, and with no impetus to change it any time soon.

Here's a handy list I stole somewhere off the net a while back that I used for shopping around ...

1st class,
WE396A (D getter)
WE2C51 (D getter)
Bendix 6385 (toooo expensive)
Tesla 6CC42 (rare but sometimes will show up in the market)

2nd class,
WE396A/2C51 (O getter)
Tung-sol 2C51 (they invent this tube, 1950s, D getter)
Raytheon CK5670 (1950s, D getter)
* Raytheon CRP 5670 windmill getter
RCA 5670 (1950s, D/Plate 2 supporting rod getter)
* RCA Command Series 5670
GE 5670 (3 mica structure, mostly 5 stars tube)

3rd class, (after 1960s)
GE 5670
RCA 5670
Tung-sol 5670
Sylvania 2C51
Sylvania 5670 (sometimes marked Mullard)
RTC 5670
Philips 2C51

4th class,
Russian and Chinese 6N3P, -E, -EB, -EV

Truth be told, the optional tube Ryan sells direct is quite tasty and a good first choice - which is probably why he sells it. He also has real decent prices on the op amps.
 
I have a question regarding this DAC (or I guess for any USB DAC for that matter)

I've read that the USB input is the way to go on this DAC chip, however my friend brings up a good point so was wondering everyones opinion. He suggests that using the optical cable would be better because there would be no electrical interference possibilities that could arise with USB input. It kind of makes sense because optical obviously wouldn't be exposed to this issue, right?

Would love to hear if you guys use USB or optical and comparing the two
 
Do you have optical out from your computer to do this? If so easy to test. If not then you need USB to Optical converter to go from computer to DAC. One reason to do this is that DAC may be able to receive higher resolution from optical.

Do you have high res files?
My thought is that this is subtle and subjective. They both work fine.
 
Yeah I've heard that USB can open up a can of worms, and I use optical for my DAC. That said, my arrangement is really out of sheer laziness as I don't want to have to troubleshoot a USB connection on an already finicky PC.

As rwartner said, give it a shot!
 
Bringing back this old thread. I am about to get one of the 2 (d1+ or d2). The question is, can I hook my turntable in the analogue in to get it through the tube? If yes, do I connect it to my amps phono after that or directly to an aux? I have a vintage marantz 4400. And is the d2 THAT better as a dac?
 
I emailed Ryan and he doesn't suggest the d1+ for upgrading the turntable signal(as a tube buffer). So I guess I should go for the d2!
Has anyone compared it with any modern budget dac, such as the ifi zen or the Cambridge audio dacmagic?
 
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