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TubeDAC-11 impressions/questions

Uneven Feet Problem Fixed?

Dear Ian and Rachel,

I am interested in purchasing a TubeDac-11.

If I place an order now, will I get a new unit which has fixed the cosmetic issue with uneven feet?

If not, I'll rather delay my order for the time being.
My needs are not urgent, I just want to improve the RCA audio output from my Cable box which supplies the TV channels to my TV.
 
^ I have a DAC11 supposedy after the feet fix issue was solved. But I don't think it really has to do with the feet.
I found this out after removing the cover to tube roll. Out of the box, the DAC11 was level.....but once I removed the cover and put it back on I had severe non-level unit.

I believe it has to do with the matching of the cover to the base unit. The cover is not very well cut to form around the base unit, so when I tighten down the screws on the side walls it bends the cover inward too much and causes the whole unit to be out of square.
So what I did was to play with all the screw holes and the culprit is the back right set of screw holes. If I tighten them down the unit goes un-level.....If I leave them semi loose the unit stays very level.
I really don't have an issue with this as cosmetically you cannot see any difference and SQ wise, does not matter.
Its more a QC issue with the box parts.........but regardless of price it should be right.

So Lord Soth, if you can deal with that, you will not be sorry in ordering a TubeDAC11.
 
Hi there. I just joined AK in order to participate here as I am a proud new owner of a TubeDac-11. I have about 80 hours on it with it's stock tubes. I'd like to give my impressions thus far and think I should begin by describing the rig it's being used in:
my rig - Input paths
digital: ancient pc delivering 96/24 files and 16 bit cd via usb out (over a rocket fish cable) to a Grant Fidelity TubeDac-11 with stock tube. using Foobar 2000 for file mgmt and hdcd converting.

analog: VPI Aries turntable w/ Benz Micro Ruby 2H cart to Pass Labs Aleph Ono phono stage to GFTD-11 analog in.

output paths - from TubeDac-11:
a) line out to Audionics of Oregon (David Berning designed) BA-150 tube power amp

b)tube out to Ray Samuels HR-2 headphone amp
spkrs: Kef 105.2; DCM Time Windows

headphones: Grado Rs1i, Sennheiser HD580(650 cord);
Sennheiser HD25-1 II; etymotic ER4; shure e530

Harmonic Technologies interconnects; HT speaker cables
Chang Lightspeed power filter, custom power cords


First let me say that this is an incredible piece, particularly at this price point. With the sonics it delivers and it's amazing flexibilty of functionalty, it performs substantially beyond it's cost even with the stock tube. It is not a stretch to say that it is easily worth twice it's price and then some.

Regarding stock tubes and the ability to tube roll: I had a Melos Sha 1 headphone amp/preamp that came with stock mediocre Sovtec tubes. I was about to sell it when a friend gave me a set of Amperex Bugle Boys to try, and the resulting improvements in sound (in every area) made it clear that the stock tubes did not even scratch the surface of the refinement that the Melos was capable of providing. The stock TubeDAC-11 tube is so decent the improvements to be found by rolling are being a bit underplayed by most people posting and reviewing the unit. It is indeed good enough to listen to in my system without feeling that I'm lacking too much in any area. However, I know from experience that, although this tube is certainly doing more than" scratching the surface" of the GF TD-11; I can look forward to substantial improvements in the hands of Mullard, Amperex, Telefunkin e.t al.

more to come...
 
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Hey gang..

My Objective2 headphone amplifier arrived today. If you're unfamiliar with it, head to NwAvGuy's website for the details.. it's been quite a hit over at HeadFi (among other places) as it delivers an impressively neutral, transparent, & near/zero disortion performance (at a very low price). First, a little background..

As I've often said before, I LOVE the TD-11.. particularly its sweet 'tube output'. For headphone enthusiasts (like me), the types of headphones I can use with the 'tube out' is limited due to it's high output impedance (a commonality with most all OTL tube amps). For example, I can run my high impedance Sennheiser HD580 (300ohm) straight from the 'tube out' without any clipping or distortion.. they sound incredible! When trying to use phones that have low/medium impedance (custom IEMs & my orthodynamic headphones.. namely the HE-500) directly from the 'tube out', the sound quality is quite bad as it distorts & clips at very low (unlistenable) volumes. The poor damping factor also impacts the sound quality fairly severely.

In order to be able to use the TD-11's tube out with lwo impedance phones, I needed to turn it into a 'hybrid amp' of sorts (amps with 'tube' & 'solid state' stages). Whole there are many hybrid amps out there.. high quality ones are hard to come by.. and the ones worth purchasing/keeping are expensive/out of my budget. Enter the O2.. a solid state amp that's very transparent, neutral/colorless, and free of distortion. The O2 also has extremely low output impedance (less than .5 ohms) so the damping factor (even with low impedance phones/IEMs) is quite high. Pairing this amp with the TD-11's tube out, I'll be able to hear the tube buffered sound (TD-11) with minimal/no coloration from the power amp (O2).. which can provide ample power to all my highly sensitive/easy to drive headphones.

I've still got the Electro-Harmonix 6922 tube in my TD-11. This tube is very neutral with impressive dynamics, a slightly v-shaped sound, a touch of tube-y liquidity & warmth, excellent frequency extension at both ends, and an incredibly spacious soundstage. With the O2 in chain.. I got down to business and was finally able to hear my (adored) HiFiMan HE-500 orthodynamic headphones with the TD-11's famed tube buffer. It's been said this ortho (as well as other modern orthos) sound excellent with tubes.. and my ears definitely agreed! I was listening a number of modern electric/smooth jazz albums (by Jeff Lorber, Charlie Hunter, etc.).. and the HE-500 simply sounded INCREDIBLE. The musicality WAS OFF THE CHARTS.. what I heard was a fantastically detailed, clean, smooth, lively, dynamic presentation. The one-of-a-kind midrange presentation the HE-500 ortho offers was on full display.

I was very happy to see how well the O2 scales with better sources and now I'm able to enjoy the TD-11's tube out with all my headphones. The little Swiss army knife of a pre-amp that is the TubeDAC-11 continues to impress the hell out of me & I'm more than satisfied in keeping this combo as my desktop rig for the foreseeable future. Thanks again to Ian/Rachel/Grant Fidelity for delivering a wonderfully capable product at a price that simply can't be beat.
 
hirezconvert said:
However, I know from experience that, although this tube is certainly doing more than" scratching the surface" of the GF TD-11; I can look forward to substantial improvements in the hands of Mullard, Amperex, Telefunkin e.t al.

more to come...
Click to expand...

Welcome to AK (dig around, lots of great AK members and info to be had here) and thanks for your feedback. Brother Love has started to spreadsheet the tubes that have been tried and reported here in the GF forum, the thread is TubeDAC-11 Tube Roll results. I have about 25 tubes to add to that info, for now don't bother with the Telefunkens as I've tried 3 different ones and they all sound identical to the stock 6N11, but that was only a quick listen, I'll revisit the Tele's soon, but swamped for the next couple of months.

Cheers,
Ian
 
FlySweep said:
As I've often said before, I LOVE the TD-11.. particularly its sweet 'tube output'. For headphone enthusiasts (like me), the types of headphones I can use with the 'tube out' is limited due to it's high output impedance (a commonality with most all OTL tube amps). For example, I can run my high impedance Sennheiser HD580 (300ohm) straight from the 'tube out' without any clipping or distortion.. they sound incredible! When trying to use phones that have low/medium impedance (custom IEMs & my orthodynamic headphones.. namely the HE-500) directly from the 'tube out', the sound quality is quite bad as it distorts & clips at very low (unlistenable) volumes. The poor damping factor also impacts the sound quality fairly severely.
Click to expand...

How did the HE-500's sound from the SS headphone amp from the front jack of the TubeDAC-11 ? And do try the other outputs with your new headphone amp and let us know what you think. We recently launched our PH-6 tube headphone amp ($185 shipped) which sound awesome fed from the TubeDAC-11's DAC Direct output. For just over $500 you end up with quite the amazing headphone rig that has 3 different headphone amps that will drive just about anything :)

As you noted it is hit and miss on low impedance headphones on the Tube outpus, but it is just the very hard to drive low impedance that seems to be an issue at which point you need to go to the SS output on the front.

Thanks for your feedback FlySweep.

Cheers,
Ian
 
Clicking Sound when CD Player on Pause

Impatiently waited and finally received the unit yesterday. Even before burning in, initial impression, this thing is absolute amazing, it's definitely made me rethink digital music (CD, Hi Res etc). My only other comparisons when it comes to DAC is Music Streamer HRT+ and Yamaha DSP-A1, no comparison, TubeDAC-11, heads and shoulders above.

Quick Question:
My setup when I encountered the clicking sound is: CD Player S/PDIF out to DAC, Tube Out to Marantz Amp (sounds wonderful) but when I put the music on pause, I get this repeat clicking coming from the DAC, immediately stopped the CD player, it goes away. DAC still works fine so no damage that I can tell.

So what happened, I have no idea may be causing that but only happens on Pause from CD player, no problems from USB. Now, my HK CD player is old and have imtermittent problems but it still plays well.

Any help/ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks
 
That is fairly normal, when the CDP is pused it is sending out a signal that the DAC receiver chip doesn't understand. You didn't damage anything but when you have this situation, best not to use pause, just stop it.

Glad you are enjoying your TubeDAC-11 vsop4me :)

Cheers,
Ian
 
Thanks Ian. It really won't be an issue in the long run but as you can imagine, was using Pause more yesterday because I was trying to do some AB to confirm if I really was hearing a difference and not imagining it.

What is that clicking noise anyway, at first, I thought it was coming from my CDP but it was coming from the DAC. Interesting to me was that it sounded like a physical clicking and not an audio, is there something in the DAC that is making that sound?
 
iGrant said:
How did the HE-500's sound from the SS headphone amp from the front jack of the TubeDAC-11 ? And do try the other outputs with your new headphone amp and let us know what you think. We recently launched our PH-6 tube headphone amp ($185 shipped) which sound awesome fed from the TubeDAC-11's DAC Direct output. For just over $500 you end up with quite the amazing headphone rig that has 3 different headphone amps that will drive just about anything :)

As you noted it is hit and miss on low impedance headphones on the Tube outpus, but it is just the very hard to drive low impedance that seems to be an issue at which point you need to go to the SS output on the front.

Thanks for your feedback FlySweep.

Cheers,
Ian
Click to expand...

The HE-500 sounds fantastic from the TD-11's SS/headphone jack.. clean, controlled, dynamic, and natural. I also did some brief A/Bing between the TD-11's headphone jack & DAC OUT (to the O2). After volume matching (by ear) to the best of my abilities, I found the performance & sound to be practically identical. The DAC OUT+O2 might have offered slightly better dynamics over the HP out.. but the difference was very marginal borderline inconsequential. After this experiment, I came away extremely impressed with how transparent the O2 is (the TD-11's DAC OUT is NICE!).. as well as how robust and competent the TD-11's headphone out is.

It could've been quite easy for GF to treat the TD-11's 'HP out' as an afterthought.. considering it does so many other things so well. Fortunately, for avid headphone users like myself, they paid the same attention to detail effectively implementing it as the tube & dac out.
 
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vsop4me said:
Thanks Ian. It really won't be an issue in the long run but as you can imagine, was using Pause more yesterday because I was trying to do some AB to confirm if I really was hearing a difference and not imagining it.

What is that clicking noise anyway, at first, I thought it was coming from my CDP but it was coming from the DAC. Interesting to me was that it sounded like a physical clicking and not an audio, is there something in the DAC that is making that sound?
Click to expand...

It's the input relay switch going in and out, probably double clicks, some will buffer this to make sure that doesn't happen but that involves more things in the digital path, which we like to avoid. I use the beginning of tracks and try to remember what I heard when A/Bing, the problem with tubes is you sometimes forget and listen to the whole song :)

Cheers,
Ian
 
mboldda1 said:
it is a must to upgrade the power cord.
Click to expand...

I realize that this is an old thread, but since no one commented on it, I would like some clarification. I am considering getting a Dac-11. I already have the DAC-09 and was thinking of getting another DAC.

I use the power cord that came with the DAC-09 and it has worked just fine. What would be the differences between the DAC-09 and the DAC-11 that you would need to upgrade the power cord? Could I use the power cord that came with the DAC-09 on the DAC-11?

What would be the problem in using the supplied Power Cord? Would there be a Fire Danger in using the supplied Power Cord with the DAC-11?

I am guessing that the DAC-11 supplied power cord is probably 3 Copper wires that are about 14-16 gauge wire. What would an 'Upgraded Power Cord' consist of? Could I make this power cord myself?
 
Cut-Throat said:
I realize that this is an old thread, but since no one commented on it, I would like some clarification. I am considering getting a Dac-11. I already have the DAC-09 and was thinking of getting another DAC.

I use the power cord that came with the DAC-09 and it has worked just fine. What would be the differences between the DAC-09 and the DAC-11 that you would need to upgrade the power cord? Could I use the power cord that came with the DAC-09 on the DAC-11?

What would be the problem in using the supplied Power Cord? Would there be a Fire Danger in using the supplied Power Cord with the DAC-11?

I am guessing that the DAC-11 supplied power cord is probably 3 Copper wires that are about 14-16 gauge wire. What would an 'Upgraded Power Cord' consist of? Could I make this power cord myself?
Click to expand...

No, the stock cord is not a hazard. No physical issue with using the stock cord with the DAC-11.

The Upgraded Power Cord is higher quality, and my understanding is that it provides higher quality power to the DAC, and provides better sound quality.
 
Cut-Throat said:
I realize that this is an old thread, but since no one commented on it, I would like some clarification. I am considering getting a Dac-11. I already have the DAC-09 and was thinking of getting another DAC.

I use the power cord that came with the DAC-09 and it has worked just fine. What would be the differences between the DAC-09 and the DAC-11 that you would need to upgrade the power cord? Could I use the power cord that came with the DAC-09 on the DAC-11?

What would be the problem in using the supplied Power Cord? Would there be a Fire Danger in using the supplied Power Cord with the DAC-11?

I am guessing that the DAC-11 supplied power cord is probably 3 Copper wires that are about 14-16 gauge wire. What would an 'Upgraded Power Cord' consist of? Could I make this power cord myself?
Click to expand...

I'll repeat Bigdl a bit here. No, there is no fire hazard with the stock cord. It's perfectly fine, standard cord, and the unit will sound great with it. The upgraded power cord is the PC-1.5 which you can find on the GF website. I just upgraded to the PC-1.5 last week and there is a marked improvement in quality. Soundstage is more forward and more cohesive. Bass has been tamed a bit and some lift/air under mids and highs. It's not a night-and-day difference or anything, but quite noticeable. Perhaps it will improve more as the cord burns in (tho I don't know if burn-in is necessary for this cord). The cord is good enough that I will probably get another PC-1.5 for my preamp before any other tweaks to my system, including tuberolling on the TubeDAC-11. Hope this helps.
 
Cut-Throat said:
I realize that this is an old thread, but since no one commented on it, I would like some clarification. I am considering getting a Dac-11. I already have the DAC-09 and was thinking of getting another DAC.

I use the power cord that came with the DAC-09 and it has worked just fine. What would be the differences between the DAC-09 and the DAC-11 that you would need to upgrade the power cord? Could I use the power cord that came with the DAC-09 on the DAC-11?

What would be the problem in using the supplied Power Cord? Would there be a Fire Danger in using the supplied Power Cord with the DAC-11?

I am guessing that the DAC-11 supplied power cord is probably 3 Copper wires that are about 14-16 gauge wire. What would an 'Upgraded Power Cord' consist of? Could I make this power cord myself?
Click to expand...

To add my 2 cents in. I do not have the PC1.5 PC, but what I did notice was a small/slight improvement with the stock DAC11 PC plugged direct to a wall socket rather than going to my power strip. Now keep in mind if you are in a high area of lightning, thunder storms or power surges, you might feel better with a surge protector, for me this does not really apply.
I am still trying to build the larger components of my system and once that is done then I will wander down the path of upgraded power cords and interconnects and such.
Many people state an improvement when using upgraded PC.
 
Here's an analogy for you. Take a 426 Hemi and feed it with a little 2barrel carb,and you virtually starve it for fuel. Now give the same engine a 4barrel carb and you'll see much better performance, much the same is true for audio equipment:)
 
guystp said:
Here's an analogy for you. Take a 426 Hemi and feed it with a little 2barrel carb,and you virtually starve it for fuel. Now give the same engine a 4barrel carb and you'll see much better performance, much the same is true for audio equipment:)
Click to expand...

Guy, these days 'Carbs' are part of your diet... You may have lost the younger crowd:D
 
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