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  #191  
Old 01-21-2019, 10:19 AM
smithyy smithyy is offline
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No certified seller, unfortunately, as stock is limited to individuals who may be DIYers or used to work for Philips.

The only possible way to try and figure out if a chip is fake (restamped) without having it in your possession is to very carefully compare the image of the chip a seller is selling to a confirmed genuine chip, like what you might see on Dutch Audio Classics. Carefully examine the font and other things like the date. There's also things like who the seller is, his country, how he originally obtained the chip etc. You can substantially reduce the chances of getting a fake just by not buying from Asia.
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  #192  
Old 01-21-2019, 08:45 PM
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Speaking of R2-R DACs, does anyone recall that the Mark Levinson of many years ago (No. 30.6) was an R2-R?
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  #193  
Old 01-21-2019, 10:03 PM
decooney decooney is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Formerly YB-2 View Post
Speaking of R2-R DACs, does anyone recall that the Mark Levinson of many years ago (No. 30.6) was an R2-R?
Ultra high-end of its time, maybe even today I wonder. I saw one, once. A friend of mine has the matching preamp and amp to that unit right now, for sale soon.
Not sure if the 30.6 was an R2R, had the Burr Brown PCM 7106 chip set too. Apparently the 30.6 was considered to be comparable to the must have dream Ferrari of it's time. Bet it would still sound amazing today. Pretty sophisticated for it's time, around 1999 'eh? Good Grief, there's one listed on eBay right now for $5830 buy-it now.

Nice writeup on 30.6, here : http://audioworld.com/archive/mar99/2301.shtml
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  #194  
Old 01-22-2019, 10:13 AM
FloridaBoy FloridaBoy is offline
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Originally Posted by smithyy View Post
I was comparing to some OS dacs I previously owned and a couple I had at the same time as the Orchid. Gungnir Multibit, Chord 2Qute, Sonic Frontiers SFD-1 MK2 and SFD-2 MK2. The Sonic Frontiers dacs with their Ultra Analog D2400A chips were the only ones I could tolerate.

I emailed Dutch Classics a year or so ago and he wanted something like 500 euros for a pulled S2 chip. I heard he asked for even more recently. S1 chips shouldn't be too hard to find on eBay - just as long as you don't buy from Asia. Plenty of fakes out there so you need to do your homework on identifying fakes. S1 aren't counterfeited nearly as often as S2 chips though.

S2 chips are very hard to find but your best bet is to try and get in touch with some DIYers who may have been holding onto some for years for future projects but may let go for the right price. I managed to get a NOS S2 chip this way. My only regret is that I only bought the one when he was selling two.

The only changes I've made in my Orchid are replacing the chip and the tube to a GE 5670 5 Star, which I prefer to the more expensive WE 396A.
Dcooney and I also prefer the GE 5 Star to the WE. We surmised that the WE396 may be preferred with a SS amplifier.

I changed the coupling caps in the Abbas to 2.0uf 200v AudioCap Theta. Tone and texture in spades with more detail. I have the same caps in a Havana paralleled with a .022uf Arizona Blue. I will move them to the Orchid and have a listen. I'll add Arizona's to the Abbas too. IMHO, the stock coupling caps are OK but experimenting can be very worthwhile. What works for me may not work best for others.

In any case, I prefer NOS implementations much more, but the Orchid is also more forward than all of these and it's one of the main reasons I prefer it.

You can ask Abbas if any of his other iterations are more forward. I will compare mine to the Orchid again after the cap change and post my subjective opinion. I am keeping both Dac's and will just rotate them. Kinda like having a second tone arm with a different cartridge.
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  #195  
Old 01-22-2019, 11:04 AM
decooney decooney is offline
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re: Orchid, "forward". The sound and presentation is definitely system dependent and related to your other gear as well when it comes to where sound is situated and where it's coming from in the sound stage. Mine tends to be less forward right now, with Orchid.

This weekend I did some testing and was able to change the sound (with the Orchid in play) from forward to less forward, now sort of "mid hall" as I've heard FloridaBoy say. That's about right and how I would describe it.

Change:
Simply rotated in some more modern JJ Groovetube tubes on the inputs of my tube amplifier as a test. The modern tubes produce a more "forward" sound in my tube amp. Then, rotated back to 1960 NOS Sylvania Black Plates my amp runs EL84s and 6922/12BZ7s on the front end. In doing so, was able to reposition the sound to more of a "mid hall" sound.

So, it kinda also depends on the amp type, tube type, other factors and the MHDT Orchid seems to do fine to respond to the tube changes. Now, if I had a solid state amp that was bright or edgy, I'd probably be looking to pull out the GE 5-Star Triple Mica tube out of the Orchid and replace it with the WE396A tube. With my tube gear the GE tube sounds better overall in the Orchid DAC. If I get another SS amp some day, will re-try the Orchid with the WE396A tube in play. Again, all system dependent according to other things going on in your particular system as I'm learning with the MHDT DAC/Orchid so far.
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  #196  
Old 01-22-2019, 08:21 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by decooney View Post
Ultra high-end of its time, maybe even today I wonder. I saw one, once. A friend of mine has the matching preamp and amp to that unit right now, for sale soon.
Not sure if the 30.6 was an R2R, had the Burr Brown PCM 7106 chip set too. Apparently the 30.6 was considered to be comparable to the must have dream Ferrari of it's time. Bet it would still sound amazing today. Pretty sophisticated for it's time, around 1999 'eh? Good Grief, there's one listed on eBay right now for $5830 buy-it now.

Nice writeup on 30.6, here : http://audioworld.com/archive/mar99/2301.shtml
Per the 5th paragraph of JA's review, is an R2R.
https://www.stereophile.com/digitalp...159/index.html
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  #197  
Old 01-22-2019, 09:12 PM
decooney decooney is offline
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Originally Posted by Formerly YB-2 View Post
Per the 5th paragraph of JA's review, is an R2R.
https://www.stereophile.com/digitalp...159/index.html
Sweet. Would love to hear it, and shocked what people are still asking for that rig from 1999. Amazing with the side pod transformer design layout like that. Makes one wonder how all these other DACS function without transformers like that if it's so critical to have them...certainly a lot more going on there.
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  #198  
Old 01-23-2019, 10:43 AM
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Yes.......... beauty being in the eye of the beholder, the No. 30.6 is a beast. Old School, in the Mark Levinson forum, likes the performance of his 30.6. He's put together a great, older ML system which he calls 'vintage', though I think the '90s doesn't quite qualify as same.
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  #199  
Old 01-26-2019, 02:29 PM
FloridaBoy FloridaBoy is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by decooney View Post
re: Orchid, "forward". The sound and presentation is definitely system dependent and related to your other gear as well when it comes to where sound is situated and where it's coming from in the sound stage. Mine tends to be less forward right now, with Orchid.

This weekend I did some testing and was able to change the sound (with the Orchid in play) from forward to less forward, now sort of "mid hall" as I've heard FloridaBoy say. That's about right and how I would describe it.

Change:
Simply rotated in some more modern JJ Groovetube tubes on the inputs of my tube amplifier as a test. The modern tubes produce a more "forward" sound in my tube amp. Then, rotated back to 1960 NOS Sylvania Black Plates my amp runs EL84s and 6922/12BZ7s on the front end. In doing so, was able to reposition the sound to more of a "mid hall" sound.

So, it kinda also depends on the amp type, tube type, other factors and the MHDT Orchid seems to do fine to respond to the tube changes. Now, if I had a solid state amp that was bright or edgy, I'd probably be looking to pull out the GE 5-Star Triple Mica tube out of the Orchid and replace it with the WE396A tube. With my tube gear the GE tube sounds better overall in the Orchid DAC. If I get another SS amp some day, will re-try the Orchid with the WE396A tube in play. Again, all system dependent according to other things going on in your particular system as I'm learning with the MHDT DAC/Orchid so far.
The Abbas is now more forward with the capacitor change. Different caps will be going into the Orchid soon. So it may not be possible to generalize.
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  #200  
Old 01-26-2019, 02:41 PM
decooney decooney is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FloridaBoy View Post
The Abbas is now more forward with the capacitor change. Different caps will be going into the Orchid soon. So it may not be possible to generalize.
Sure is interesting how one part or tube or cable change here or there can affect something else unexpectedly too. I went back to my NOS tubes in my amp quickly to regain some of the "mid hall" type of sound, less forward. I'm considering ordering and trying some of the same Mundorf EVO Silver Gold caps for the Orchid since I had good luck with them in the amp last year. Need to check if they have a non-oil version.
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