I' ve built this with the DAB circuit in front. The designer herself kindly assisted to adjust the DAB for the fetishizator and after a couple of years I just connected it to the Nitro. I never heard the Nitro without the DAB and I think the DAB for the fetishizator resulted to very high gain with the Nitro. That said, I have the impression that the real balanced mode sounds better.
PS. It is essential to notice that I' ve built the Nitro with different psu. I simply didn't manage to make the gyrators work and I replaced them with a tubed psu!
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There has been an extended "transplantation". The sound card is now floated, communicating with the PCI slot only for ground and data transfer.
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For my shanling I and a lot of other people prefer tube I/V over SS solution With opa627.
6n16p are little but very good tubes but they sound as solid state. I use them to convince people that tubes can sound as SS.
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I think sound depents on the implementation. They sound very tuby in "my" Nitro!
Magicbus are you still using them or you think salas preamp is better? If so in what way? Can you describe the qualities of both in simple terms.
Also why you decided to go with tube PSU over the gyrator?
DCG3 came to stay!
Although soundstage dimensions haven't change, the bodies are better defined both for orientation and size. Bass was fast but now also sounds deeper and more accurate. I think it has to do mostly with the psu; DCG3 has a very low impedance psu and this can be heard. I tried to minimize psu-gain stage interaction with my diff preamp but theory is not the same with reallity. I used the tube psu with the Nitro because I just didn't manage to make the gyrators to work Perhaps fake components? I don't know! It sounds like heavy 2nd order distostion this way. A rather high impedance psu with a SE gain stage.
"Tube sound" is supposed to be a particular harmonic context dominated by 2nd order distortion. At which level of distortion the sound is good I think it's completely subjective. DCG3 has this tube harmonic patern and to my ears it has it at the right quantity!
Edit; Perhaps it is not right to refer to my built as Nitro since I have changed the original design. My mod certainly sounds differently than the Nitro with the gyrators.
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Your make sound differently in a good way compared to original ? I thought you never made the original version.
I think we are standing at the edge of old Jfet vs tube sound debate.
But at least you have not said your version of Nitro was a huge change ( or other way around) with DCG3, right?
I think we are standing at the edge of old Jfet vs tube sound debate.
But at least you have not said your version of Nitro was a huge change ( or other way around) with DCG3, right?
I assume there is a misunderstanding. DCG3 is Salas preamp. This is what I prefer vs my differential tube preamp vs the modified Nitro vs the fetishizator. For "Nitro" and fetishizator, the DAB circuit was also involved. I haven't listened to the original Nitro with gyrators so I can't compare it with mine tube psu version.
Salas preamp (DCG3) compared to my version of Nitro is night and day! FWIW, my Nitro sounds very dynamic with its 18x gain! Also quite silent on 94 db speakers. And the sound is rich and warm if this tells something to you. Definately this is tube sound. Just too much for me...
Salas preamp (DCG3) compared to my version of Nitro is night and day! FWIW, my Nitro sounds very dynamic with its 18x gain! Also quite silent on 94 db speakers. And the sound is rich and warm if this tells something to you. Definately this is tube sound. Just too much for me...
I use Salas DCG3 as the analogue output section of the dac chip. I/V conversion is done by a 2ohm resistor and then the signal goes straight to DCG3 input without coupling capacitor or potensiometer. This means DC offset of app 11mV but seems OK. Of course, signal is too low but it does fine in my system. Bigger I/V resistor would result on higher signal but also higher DC offset and then a coupling capacitor should be used.
As for the Nitro, I' ve constructed it according to the original design with PCB and everything but on power on the gyrators seemed to have an endless time constant and never reached the adequate B+. I didn't manage to troubleshoot this as I cannot understant gyrators...
As for the Nitro, I' ve constructed it according to the original design with PCB and everything but on power on the gyrators seemed to have an endless time constant and never reached the adequate B+. I didn't manage to troubleshoot this as I cannot understant gyrators...
Honestly, these caps attract me for availability and price... In some cases they come cheaper even from lytics! They served me well at a period of an idiosyncratic preference for foil caps. And it's not only about pio, there are silver mica, teflon and more. I chose how to use them simply based on their nominal ratings. That said, I had tried for a comparison in coupling duty. But A/B tests do not work for me and I didn't have the patience for a long period listening with each one. One quick conclusion though was that I didn't like pio types...
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