Grant Fidelity Tube Dac
Aureo Harvey
With that out of the way we get to the sound. First, I connected it up to my Sony CDP CX-355 300 disc mega changer, partly because I happened to have an optical cable and my other CD player only has a 75-ohm coaxial out. Besides a lack of cable, I was very curious to see what this combination would offer. The Tube DAC with the functionality of a 300-disc player is an intriguing option for those audiophiles still not up with computer audio and on a tight budget. The Sony player was never a particularly bad machine in the sense that it stayed with a safe non-bright, albeit uninteresting, unexciting presentation.
With the worthwhile addition of ambiance came a slightly higher noise floor and a little bit of added reverb or a slight audible distortion on voices. I did a double check, connecting the Sony player by itself to ensure this was not an issue with the new tubes I had put in my reference Audio Note OTO amplifier. It was not. The distortion disappeared using just the Sony. Running the DAC-09 from the solid-state outputs also cleared up the noise; unfortunately, the solid-state output lacks the star quality the tube DAC section offers.
Using Audio Note Lexus interconnects from the CD 6 into the DAC-09, and from the DAC-09 to the OTO, things improved substantially and that distortion heard from the Sony mostly vanished. There is still a slight reverberated sound from voices that reminds me a little bit of the reverberation I heard from original Rega Planet players.
Using the USB DAC section was somewhat problematic with my OTO. The OTO would generate a hum only when a computer was connected to the USB. I sent the unit back to Grant Fidelity and a new sample did the same thing. Very strange, as every other input worked perfectly. Grant Fidelity checked both and had no issues. I connected the unit to my Rotel RC 1082 preamp and a pair of Shengya PM 150 Monoblocks being reviewed and there was no hum whatsoever. The issue is with the cheap power cord I had my laptop connected to creating some sort of ground loop issue. The OTO was more sensitive to the issue while the Rotel clearly was not.
The preamp was an excellent compromise that certainly made my brighter leaning budget Tannoy speakers an enjoyable match. Compared to my Rotel RC-1082 preamp, the Rotel was considerably more open and transparent but it retails at over four times the price and does not have a DAC.
As most tube owners know you may be able to alter the sound to your tastes via tube rolling. The DAC-09/preamp comes with a Chinese 6N3 or 5670 tube so it is possible that you may find a different sort of presentation with a different tube type. Rachel at Grant Fidelity also indicated that they will be selling an upgraded 192kHz over the 96kHz version of this DAC. DIYers will like the initial friendly price and may wish to upgrade internals such as capacitors.
On a couple of internet forums, questions have been raised that the Grant Fidelity unit is not original and that the same unit is being sold by several vendors with their own name plates. Indeed, I have seen four such units so far and these are units that look exactly the same as the Tube DAC-09 with different name plates on the front and what appear to be identical inner workings. Ian and Rachel of Grant Fidelity do not deny this. I asked them for a statement as to this issue and Rachel replied to me as follows:
i bought both a tube dac11 and a yulong audio sabre18 dac from grant fidelity. the 11 sounds thumpy and veiled and the sabre 18 sounds good but will only lock on to signal from optical input. sent it back to grant to get checked but they said nothing wrong. havent responded to further requests for options or advice. terrible customer support from grant fidelity and would never buy from them again. you get what you pay for i guess.
A grant fidelity tube buffer has poped up for sale locally and was wondering if anyone has used one before and could give there opinion of it to me? Im quite interested in to how well they would actually work? Below is a link to a review on it
Grant Fidelity is based in Airdrie (just outside of Calgary, Alberta), Canada. I had one of these when they first came out (I actually picked it up from Ian and Rachel Grant's house!). It was a cheap introduction to the world of tube audio.
I have not used Grant Fidelty tube buffer but had used a Yaqin tube buffer, which uses 6SN7 tubes. The difference in the sound was quite audible, giving a more natural and 3 dimension aspect. I demo it to someone else and they were astounded. I am not sure if this affect all system equally. However be warned. The damned thing is quite addictive. I sold the Yaqin and a year later, I have 2 full tube amps!
(@@NordicNorm ) Thanks for mentioning Rachel Grant. I received a parcel of KT88 from Grant Fidelity yesterday and the tubes in one box were smashed. I had email exchanges with one Rachel - I was a bit terse but not impolite. Now I know who Rachel is!
THE fundamental specification for a product to be called a "buffer" is output impedance. AND that output impedance should be low. Grant Fidelity can't even manage to publish the output impedance specs.
You guys do realise most of Grant Fidelity is just a rebadged Yaqin or Ming Da or some other brand from the East for those who want to avoid warranty issues buying from China but instead buy from them.
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This newly designed Grant Fidelity TubeDAC-11 replaces the hugely popular previous TubeDAC-09 but still keeps all the popular features and will process uo to 24/192 high res signals plus a much more refined sound.
High fidelity re-design from ground up, and still with a reasonable budget in mind. This vacuum Tube Digital-to-Analog Converter will connect you with modern media technologies without sacrificing the sound quality of analog.
You can use it directly with your digital source such as laptop and music server and play music back through your existing amplifier or powered speakers. Or you can simply get a pair of high quality headphones and enjoy the music in private!
This is one of the most versatile pieces we've ever offered. We presently have it connected to a vintage Magnavox console tube amp and a set of AR94 floor standers and the performance is stunning! Excellent 9+ condition and preforms flawlessly.
In the paper, Merzari and his co-authors examined novel twisted tube heat exchangers for potential use in molten salt nuclear reactors. Using high-fidelity, or more realistic, computer simulations of turbulence, the authors predicted the heat transfer and fluid flow behavior of the heat exchangers. The predictions closely matched experimental data, demonstrating that high-fidelity software can be used to investigate and improve complex heat exchanger designs. The researchers also explored the design parameters and layouts of the heat exchangers, pointing out deficiencies in existing correlations and recommending best practices for modeling and simulations of these devices.
Merzari has contributed to more than 200 publications. He is a postdoctoral fellow of the Tokyo Institute of Technology. He has received the Landis Young Member Engineering Achievement Award, the George Westinghouse Silver Medal, the HPC Innovation Excellence Award, the NURETH-16 Best Paper Award and numerous other accolades.
N1 - Funding Information:This research is funded with the TeleFLEX project (Grant No. PID07038) by the Dutch Department of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation and the Province of Overijssel, within the Pieken in de Delta (PIDON) initiative.Publisher Copyright: 2014 by ASME.
N2 - The implementation of flexible instruments in surgery necessitates high motion and force fidelity and good controllability of the tip. However, the positional accuracy and the force transmission of these instruments are jeopardized by the friction, the clearance, and the inherent compliance of the instrument. The surgical instrument is modeled as a series of interconnected spatial beam elements. The endoscope is modeled as a rigid curved tube. The stiffness, damping, and friction are defined in order to calculate the interaction between the instrument and the tube. The effects of various parameters on the motion and force transmission behavior were studied for the axially-loaded and no-load cases. The simulation results showed a deviation of 1.8% in the estimation of input force compared with the analytical capstan equation. The experimental results showed a deviation on the order of 1.0%. The developed flexible multibody model is able to demonstrate the characteristic behavior of the flexible instrument for both the translational and rotational input motion for a given set of parameters. The developed model will help us to study the effects of various parameters on the motion and force transmission of the instrument
AB - The implementation of flexible instruments in surgery necessitates high motion and force fidelity and good controllability of the tip. However, the positional accuracy and the force transmission of these instruments are jeopardized by the friction, the clearance, and the inherent compliance of the instrument. The surgical instrument is modeled as a series of interconnected spatial beam elements. The endoscope is modeled as a rigid curved tube. The stiffness, damping, and friction are defined in order to calculate the interaction between the instrument and the tube. The effects of various parameters on the motion and force transmission behavior were studied for the axially-loaded and no-load cases. The simulation results showed a deviation of 1.8% in the estimation of input force compared with the analytical capstan equation. The experimental results showed a deviation on the order of 1.0%. The developed flexible multibody model is able to demonstrate the characteristic behavior of the flexible instrument for both the translational and rotational input motion for a given set of parameters. The developed model will help us to study the effects of various parameters on the motion and force transmission of the instrument
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