this is it. i'm done.

The QBD76 dac is a thing of beauty, but it is too analytial and forward for my taste, which I think is similar to yours.

Saying that, through your system, it might be perfect.....all I'm getting at, is be a little careful as there are some very good Dacs around at that money, that sound more like analogue.

Wow.. that is very nice & honest.. You are right.. I don not like highly analytical but non musical stuff.. please suggest me what other DACs, I sould consider, whic would sound more analogue like.

Apologies to Craig.M for usurping his thread for a moment.

NOS tube dacs like those from Audio Note or the MHDT Labs Havana are worth investigating.

Other dacs that you might like to check out are - Electrocompaniet ECD1, Naim dac, and Linn DS.
The Linn Sneaky (£800-£900) is certainly worth hearing; the Linn Majik DS is under £2k and the New Akurate £4.5k (the old Akurate can be got at much less).

At big bucks you have the likes of DCS Debussy; at sensible money there is the Rega.

As with all things, check specs carefully, as not all dacs do everything eg. usb or 24/192 for instance.

Lots of home demoing is needed, as dacs can be funny, in that spending more money doesn't always give you what you're after.

Good Luck

no apologies necessary Cno.

what did you hear the qbd76 with?  i only ask as i found it to be very musical and well balanced.

the thread title is a bit mis-leading as, errrm, it's all change here!  just got the speakers left to sell...

unfortunately i had to let the dac go to help fund the change.  hopefully, the benchmark dac1 hdr i've got coming will ease the pain.

Thx Craig M

I heard the Chord dac with: MF M6i + Focal Diablo Utopia; and in a full Linn Akurate system (new version), where I heard it versus the Akurate DS and Majik DS. It was more "in your face" in both demos...and this was verified when compared to the DS.

Please understand that I'm "hyper-sensitive" to any brightness/forwardness. I've been to demo evenings where everyone bar me thought the sound was great, and I had a "brightness headache"!
The Chord sound (and their cables for that matter) is not for me.

I'm a Class A man through and through, and the makes of speakers that do it for me are the likes of - PMC, Proac, Spendor and Kef Ref

If didn't have to compromise with AV, I would have an Audio Note two channel system.

The HiFi enthusiast is never done.

2 completely different companies make the cables as make the components

You are correct Mr. Law

It was mis-leading of me to insinuate that Chord Electronics made cables, but I'd waffled on quite enough.

FWIW I've heard the QBD76 a few times, albeit not in my system, so it's quite hard to isolate what is doing what. I would certainly says it's musical but is also full of 'attack', which some could (very fairly) consider bright. Obviously, at that money a good demo is a must.

I think that's a fair appraisal, though I avoided the word "bright", and used forward instead.

Apologies to Craig.M from my end too (But that DAC is so beautiful!) 

CnoEvil - Thanks alot for your inputs. It looks like there are many options.. I will investigate in cyberspace first and then in real world.. Do you think will my setup be too.. what's the word?.. gooey.. if I have Valves in DAC (along with valves in pre-amp stage as well as Class A amplification) or people do get good result with valves in all stage?

Some valve dacs can be as you described, but it is not a given. The Audio Note 2.1x signature that I tried, was anything but "gooey". The Havana might be.

Whether it will work or not, is a case of "suck it and see."

Ps. One make of dacs that I should also have mentioned, is Bel Canto.

Thanks cnoevil!

how about some pics of the new setup craig? i'd like a gander at those speakers in situ