Ad1865 Dac Review

[Pelagio Bosch]

TheDac uses the Analong Devices 1865N 18 bit NOS Dac. Audio Note loves to use this DAC chip in all there production Dacs all the way to there top model. They employ a 1x Oversampleing filter and no analong filter. The M2 Analog Power supply uses a ECL82 Regulator tube and a 6X5 Rectifier tube. The output stage uses twin 6922 triods tubes. There is a large main transformer, separate digital power supply board, Choke, heat shield etc.

The USB board is designed and built by Jim Hagerman and his company. This board takes in the USB signal and converts it to SPDIF. I am told by a real Guru that is not the best way to go yet Jim tells me he has designed this board the right way. The USB cable I am using is the best one I know of. The Ridge Street Audio Designs Digital USB Poeima!!! RV3 cable is so much better than your typical data cables and even your so called Audiophile cables. I only find out yesterday that the builder will be releasing and even better cable and I have it from his partner at the RMAF show that both the Poiema!!! and the new cable are the best period.

I have to add additions to my shelves so I can mount the DAC and laptop. The DAC for now is sitting on my left subwoofer and the laptop is on the floor close because I am using a 1 meter cable. I am using the wireless connection to access by desktop's hard drive and external drive where I keep my music as FLAC files.

I use an IBM Stinkpad T43 with Winblows XP SP3. I am using J. River Media Center 12 with ASIO4all version 2.9. Most of my IC's are Signal Cables with Bullet plugs and I also use some signal cables power cords. My whole two channel system is plugged into a Furutech E-TP80 power conditioner and that is fed by the almighty Omega Micro Active planar cord.

The Dac uses Black Gate Capactiors on the DAC board and the signature version of the output board. I used my Modified Denon 3930CI player to feed the DAC. The unit came with Electro Harmonics 6922 tubes, a Russian ECL82 tube and a Raytheon 6X5 tube.

The sound at first was bloomy are colored. After about 50 hours I noticed a change so I rolled the tubes as follows: A NOS Mullard 1962- 1965 ECL82 Regulator tube, a NOS Bendix 5852 rectifier tube, and two Mullard PCC88 (7DJ8) in the output stage. The sound improved nicely with the vintage tubes as I do not like current tubes. Shortly after that, the sound changed and I thought it was fuzzy and lacking highs. Turns out, the unit with Black gates needs a lot of burn time so I went back to the original tubes and put the DAC in my HT system where I fed my Desktop into it using SPDIF.

After 6-7 days of burn in time on the HT system, the USB board went in yesterday. I moved the unit back to my Tube system and the sound is very analog like. Before I started this review, I rolled the tubes and now I am using 3 Mullard tubes and one Bendix. The sound is better, more natural and organic so I want to share this with all of you.

Using the USB connection causes no fatigue at all, you can listen for hours and hours. The sound quality of fine recorded Jazz and classical music is truly wonderful and organic sounding. I expect that to improve once I mount the Dac on a shelf and use isolation feet. The laptop will also be mounted on a shelf.

The presence of performers there in front of you is so nice. I know my system is not done yet I am digging this. I love using the computer so I can listen to a little of this and that. I remote control my laptop so I can use my desktop like a remote control.

I feel after listening to a few NOS dacs that the SQ is more natural than the oversampling dacs at this time. I am using Herbies tube dampers on the tubes and they make a huge difference on the Russian tubes, not as much for the vintage tubes yet they do help.

For anyone who is thinking about using your computer to drive your high end system, I urge you to use a well designed USB Dac and quality USB cable and you will be very pleased and listen to music, not hi fi.

I was very interested in the review on this DAC as I am about to receive mine. I didn't order the Hagerman USB board however and was wondering how it might compare to the one of the Empirical Audio products with built-in reclocking capabilites. Any advice in this regard would be appreciated.

You are wlecome and thanks for the kind words. You know, no doubt know about the USB cable I use as you heard it at the RMAF. The Guru who was theree says it is the best and now a newer one will be available soon.

I just compared track 3 (Sereno) from Antonio Forcione - Live! on the Naim label. My DVD player is modified with a D-Clock and Zap Filter MK2 output stage. This makes my player very analog and a great transport. The SQ is better with the Laptop driving the Dac than the player driving the Dac. I will have to play the player using its' internal dacs and report back.

Peter Qvrotrup (founder/Pres of ANUK) has today told me not to use the Bendix rectifier with any of his ANUK equipment as a substitute for a 6x5 rectifier. He said that the Bendix draws double the current than the 6x5 rectifiers that he uses and that the winding of the transformer that supports the filaments of the tubes used in his preamps and DACs cannot support that much draw without eventually burning out that particular winding. He said that he had has quite a few orders for mains transformer replacements due to that problem. I have a Bendix that I am itching to use in a AN DAC 4.1.

Question: how long have you run the Bendix in your DAC Any transformer or other problems using the Bendix? Anyone else out there use the Bendix in place of a 6x5 in an AN DAC? Any maintenance problems as a result?

What hardware and software(?) would I need? - and what sort of specification should I look for in the laptop? If thsi all makes sense maybe someone may be able to suggest actual brands that will be suitable for my system (and relatively idiot proof)

Peter is adamant about not putting the Bendix into his equipment. He says that it will eventually burn out the power transformer as it is only built to accept the 6x5 .5 amps current. The Bendix is more than double that current. He says that some transformers may last years under that load and then burn out and that some burn out fast. Definitely, that worries me. Cicerosecundus

Hey Blueixus, it would be great to get your feedback on the Off-Ramp 3 with superclock 4 using the I2S input. I have read nothing but positive experiences and am looking to purchase one in the future when I upgrade my DAC. I am currently clocking from an external word clock (Black Lion Microclock MKII) using a pro audio interface with solid results. I'm very pleased and absolutely sold on the benefits of re-clocking / reducing jitter for digital playback. My dad with his tin ears can even hear the improvements and prefers my setup over his to listen to his newly recorded tracks.

I am now loving this Dac. I use the Real ASIO driver to bypass the Kmixer so the SQ is great. I feel that DAC is like analog. I now use recordings sourced from Records taken from high end TT's and the SQ is just like Records, I have the warm, full sound where voices and instruments are no longer on top of each other.

My front end give me so much pleasure and I so pleased. I just hooked up a car stereo with a USB port and my flah dribe plays WAV files without issue. I am going to try and hard drive that uses only 500 Milly amps and hopeing that works in the car.

I have retired my current AN digital board and am using a DDDac board driving the AN I/V stage. I did this really to try an get a feel for USB direct to I2S or reciever chip rather than going via USB to SPIDF (via the HAGUSB). I have a hunch that if there a weakness with this DAC it is this input.

I agree that using I2S is better this USB-SPDIF. I know about that DDDac yet I am not a builder. I can tell you since I am a local rep for ANK that the new board as per my suggestions will have Wolfson Dac and SPDIF chips. I want to use Is2 so looking at the twisted pair USB board makes send for now until a custom programed chip can me used for 96Khz recordings.

Its no secret that the Audio Note (UK) Red Book CD players have challenged my perceptions of what a digital audio reality sounds like, with their analog-like presentation, superb musicality, and exemplary sound quality from Red Book CDs.

But that's only part of the Audio Note (UK) CD players allure for me, as where they really 'pulled the rabbit out of the hat' in my little corner of the world was by opening up the ability to listen to recorded musical performances from all the periods of our recorded music canon with just one source component.

No longer was there a need to have multiple source setups to play acoustic & electric era recordings, with their myriad equalization requirements to hear them at their best, or have dedicated monaural and stereo moving-coil cartridges, tonearms, and phono stages optimized for the playback of magnetic era recordings on vinyl (which by the way, with top notch kit, adds up to more than even the price of the CD 5.1x).

Now, with one of these high-fidelity Audio Note (UK) CD players I can listen to the vast library of Planet Earth's great recorded musical performances at a level of fidelity that would have been unimaginable just a decade ago. and do that with only one high-fidelity source component.

Classical music lovers - like the late and great J. Gordon Holt of Stereophile fame - might prefer CDs for their 90 dB dynamic range (vinyl is 55 to 70 dB), which means less dynamic compression (and the possibility for none), and their up to 80 minute playing time, which enables listening to a full concert uninterrupted (where vinyl is an interrupted 45 minutes over two sides).

There is also less surface noise from CDs than vinyl, and they don't wear after repeated playing like vinyl. A CD collection also takes up less space than a vinyl collection, so you can get a bigger music library into the same amount of space.

Vinyl aficionados will point out that the frequency range of vinyl is potentially 7 Hz to 50KHz (but more likely the lower end is 20 to 30 Hz), and vinyl high-frequencies handily exceeds that of CD (CDs top out at 22.5KHz). That potentially delivers more openness, more spaciousness, and more soundstage depth, for vinyl.

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