I would have written this 8 weeks ago, but my life has been too preoccupied with other events to bother with this until now.
Eric Heider is the man behind the dB Audio Labs, and he is very easy to communicate with. He made a point of telling me how to get his Tranquility DAC to sound its best. One very important detail is that it really needs to be paired with a Mac Mini to sound its best. If you use a Windows PC, you probably won't care for his DAC. I guess that limits his DAC's appeal somewhat.
Fortunately, I have a Mac Mini, so I went ahead and ordered an SE model. I decided that as long as I was going to audition it, I may as well ask for a special upgrade that someone I know showed me on his DAC two years ago. I asked Eric to replace his stock output caps with Jupiter Cu caps. He told me it wasn't a problem, but I'd have to pay for the upgrade. I happily accepted.
I asked Eric to ship it to AC member Aldcoll's home because I wasn't certain where I would be when it arrived. Sure enough, when Alan hooked it up to his Windows PC, it sounded like crap. Poor Alan tried switching cables and I'm not sure what else, but the sound never changed. I collected the DAC from him a few days later and took it home. I added it into my system (Pi Audio UberBUSS, D Sachs Model 2 preamp, D Sachs Kootenay 120 amp, Daedalus Apollos speakers, and a TWL loom) not knowing what kind of music would come out of my speakers.
Let me back up a little...Just before adding it into my system, I had been using my Nuprime DAC-9 to listen to a few familiar songs. Well, with zero burn in, the Tranquility DAC (with Jupiter Cu Caps) sounded wonderful! There was an immediate improvement is the overall sound. The soundstage grew by a couple feet and (most importantly to me) acoustic instruments and vocals took on extra depth and clarity. I liked this DAC right away.
Of course, we're not supposed to like equipment right away, so I told myself to be patient and to give it a good run for my money. I did just that. I burned it in for 20+ hours each day (using my Folsom's chip amp). I didn't do much serious listening during burn in because my Apollos sound a bit thin when the Folsom amp is driving them. Once it got close to 150 hours, I began paying closer attention to how it sounded with my tube gear. During burn in, there were a couple times where the music sounded very much like it was coming out of a locker room (those caps need time to burn in).
At around that time, I packed up my D Sachs gear and the Tranquility DAC and drove up to Bothel, WA for another of Greg Fisk's audio G2Gs. Everyone who attended it brought some gear, so we had a blast. I got to compare the Tranquility DAC to Greg's Lampizator Atlantic DAC. It wasn't as nice sounding as the Lampi, but it's also close to $4000
less expensive! Considering the price difference, I was actually quite satisfied with its performance.
After the G2G, I returned home and set everything up again for another couple weeks, I think. Then, unfortunately, I boxed everything back up and put it into storage because I had a flight to catch to Taiwan. [My wife and I will fly to PDX mid-May.] Oops. I forgot the important point of this write up - I liked the Tranquility DAC so much that I told Eric there was no way I would ship it back to him. I also bought the DAC's power cord that he included for me to try. It's a very nice thick PC.
If you own a Mac Mini and are considering a new DAC, I suggest chatting with Eric about his Tranquility DAC. It's worth a listen in my opinion. Eric is mighty quiet here on AN, but maybe he'll stop by to say howdy.
Thank you, Eric, for creating such a nice DAC.
Regards,
Michael
[Some of the details have blurred because I waited so long to write about this, but this is close enough for me.]