Last Sunday as I was fine tuning my plans to soon buy an amp and subwoofer, Emil had the nerve to offer
his Border Patrol SE dac for sale....and for a pretty good price. The problem with that is it wasn’t on my horizon to buy a dac now!! But...I’m pretty sure Pete has one and that he and Dave both run Mac minis prepped by Eric Hider for their dacs. As I recall, Gary also has an nos Audio Note. I’ve heard it and it sounds quite good.
So I bit the bullet and it’ll be here from NY this coming Monday. I have wanted to try this dac for well over a year. This BP dac is coax out only, but that works with my current setup. All the Border Patrol stuff gets raves. So we’ll soon see if Im in the nos camp or not.
You are going to be amazed at what 44.1 REALLY sounds like!
Ya know, Dave, I really hate it when you’re right (not really haha). With little time to warm up the innards, I started to listen and what a very, very pleasant surprise. It is easily superior to my Antelope dac.
Two things are apparent quite quickly
1) it resolves better
2) it has a wonderfully organic presentation. instruments sound more real
Both the Border Patrol and Deepak’s teeny Piano dac also have a fuller sound than the Antelope, which sounds a bit thin in comparison. That’s why my wife....who wears hearing aids btw....liked the sound of the Piano dac.
Emil mentioned a different tube that TWL Pete uses in his BP dac, the valvo ez80. I did a quick search and they go for $10 to $40. If anyone’s familiar with this tube, pls advise.
I’m fortunate to have a good amp like the McCormack and Gary’s new carbon fiber digital and ic’s to easily discern the differences. Too bad it doesn’t have a usb jack as it would be interesting to hear Eric Hider’s tweaked and modded Mac mini with it.
Oh, yes, and the Icepower amp will be here Friday. It’s Christmas in May ❄️ 🎅🏽
Nick