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Kubelik NOS DAC kits

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#206
I'm not sure I had the original one. My first TT was a Planar 2 and that had the arm with the kink in it and wood around the baseplate but my 3 had the straight arm with the tungsten counterweight and all black, no wood.

Oh and the straight arm was all-in-one with no separable headshell. But the arm that came with the 2 I changed the headshell to a magnesium one, forgot the brand.
 
#207
Planar 3 with green lettering, straight RB300 arm... first one of a long series... good TT, and even better once tweaked.

I still have a Planar 2 and love it, with a Goldring 1042. Well, it is a massively tweaked Planar 2 as the only thing that is original and untouched is the plinth (also with green lettering), albeit acting as a kind of subchassis now LOL

The fist time I heard a CD player that could challenge it (it was less tweaked back then), it was a Wadia 6. I could later afford a Pionneer PD75 which is a TT for CD really and good sounding. Was though never completely happy, tweaked it massively, it got close and better than the TT in some areas, but not completely there long term. I still use it nowadays as a great digital player, with my own DAC converting to analog, and that bettered the tweaked Rega... which got tweaked again in return and got the edge slightl... and then my external DAC got tweaked again and it probably had objectively the edge, with both source sounding now since a few years addictively good. That DAC was a world beater 20y ago, up to 20 000$ as far as I tested, and still today it would beat easily a D70S (can't comment any higher, stopped there realising that air got thin regardless ASR & Co at that level and that musciality / flavours where more the key differences).

Soooo... based on all this if you tune your DACs with that kind of sound and spirit, there are good chances they sound indeed very good!

Promising... especialy as I found a way to circumvent the volume control problem regardless the system

Claude
 
#208
#210
ClaudeG said:
Planar 3 with green lettering, straight RB300 arm... first one of a long series... good TT, and even better once tweaked.

I still have a Planar 2 and love it, with a Goldring 1042. Well, it is a massively tweaked Planar 2 as the only thing that is original and untouched is the plinth (also with green lettering), albeit acting as a kind of subchassis now LOL

The fist time I heard a CD player that could challenge it (it was less tweaked back then), it was a Wadia 6. I could later afford a Pionneer PD75 which is a TT for CD really and good sounding. Was though never completely happy, tweaked it massively, it got close and better than the TT in some areas, but not completely there long term. I still use it nowadays as a great digital player, with my own DAC converting to analog, and that bettered the tweaked Rega... which got tweaked again in return and got the edge slightl... and then my external DAC got tweaked again and it probably had objectively the edge, with both source sounding now since a few years addictively good. That DAC was a world beater 20y ago, up to 20 000$ as far as I tested, and still today it would beat easily a D70S (can't comment any higher, stopped there realising that air got thin regardless ASR & Co at that level and that musciality / flavours where more the key differences).

Soooo... based on all this if you tune your DACs with that kind of sound and spirit, there are good chances they sound indeed very good!

Promising... especialy as I found a way to circumvent the volume control problem regardless the system

Claude
Click to expand...
Wadia 6 and some other CDs were really a good source. Still, when the turntable was playing.... Back then my profession was audio systems reviewer, so I had heard a lot of stuff. My first turntable was some Danish one, i can't remember right now, it's somewhere dusting. Now I am playing with clearaudio, which gives me tons of pleasure. For many years I was disappointed with digital audio and didn't deal with it at all.
Lately, due to the high res I gave it a try again and to be honest, it attracted my attention, some setups were getting really close to turntable and new music was available in digital format, which I cannot find in recodrs any more. So from that point I am searching how I can bring my setup to a really hi-end sound if possible.
I thought two ways. 1) Buy a really expensive DAC, which I am really uncertain because I am afraid it might be not as expected and have given a whole amount of money. That's why I tried some that their measurements were top, although at "normal" prices.
2) Go DIY. That's why I am here. It worked very well with amplifiers and preamps, so I will try this route. I ll start with this and depending on how that will go, I might try Soekris' board too (to be honest I am sure I will do that out of curiosity 🙂 ).
 
#212
I'll be definitely interested in a side-by-side comparison of Celibidache with a Soekris board. One of the guys on here with Kubelik was saying he preferred his newly acquired Kubelik to his Soekris even though the Soekris sounded more impressive in some aspects.
 
#213
abraxalito said:
I'll be definitely interested in a side-by-side comparison of Celibidache with a Soekris board. One of the guys on here with Kubelik was saying he preferred his newly acquired Kubelik to his Soekris even though the Soekris sounded more impressive in some aspects.
Click to expand...
Will do, patience. Now on the bench i have three projects: A phono with new JFETs JFE150, a circlotron with 2SK182ES and a new design preamp.
Phono for now is a little not good, will see. PreAmp is really promising. Soooooo little time...!!!!!
 
#216
I have just completed a Ad1862 dac and have been comparing it to the Kubelik. Both are using the Amanero USB inputs. I don't know, I feel the Kubelik has the qualities in certain area that I do not know how to define well like an audiophile reviewer. English is not my native language. But to my best of ability ~ the ad1862 does not have the same airiness and musicality of the Kubelik in my system. It could be due to the output stage in the Kubelik that gives it a very well controlled, calm sound when it comes to complex passages of the music. The Ad1862 sounds flatter, more 2D as compared to the Kubelik. I have not tried other iv stages on the ad1862 though and I think it is still worth exploring.
 

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#219
What I found when developing Kubelik was that the noise in the IV stage affected how 'airy' the sound is. OPA627 is the lowest noise JFET opamp but its still more than twice as noisy as the OPA2209 used in Kubelik which is a bipolar input device.

I just checked OPA1641 datasheet and found it slightly beats OPA627 on noise so I'm a bit out of date, OPA627 is no longer the quietest JFET input opamp.
 
#220
abraxalito said:
What I found when developing Kubelik was that the noise in the IV stage affected how 'airy' the sound is. OPA627 is the lowest noise JFET opamp but its still more than twice as noisy as the OPA2209 used in Kubelik which is a bipolar input device.
Click to expand...
As I suspected, you have done extensive tests before finalising on the design of output stage. This thread is not about ad1862 so I shall not ask you what can be done to improve it... 😬
 
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