Another new DAC: Audio Mirror

I was a proud owner of a Denafrips Terminator DAC, which was significantly better than any other DAC I’ve had in my system before.

A friend of mine who has an entire Audio Mirror system including their big horn speakers showed up at my door with this brand new Audio Mirror DAC. It was not even burned in properly after only playing a few hours. I was absolutely sure that the big Terminator was in another league and there was no room for comparison. Well, it turned out I was not exactly right. They sounded different. What I really liked about the Audio Mirror was how it reproduced vocals and bass. Vocals was so smooth and real and the bass had a lot more details compared to the Terminator. Simply the Audio Mirror was more musical than the Terminator.

I realized how good the Analogue Devices AD1865NK chip was and went on a mission to find the best AD1865 DAC I can afford. I am currently building an Audio Note Kits 5.1 DAC. Once I get all the parts and complete the build it would be compared again to the Audio Mirror and can report back. If you see the ANK here sale you would know why :). One of these two DACs would go in the empty slot where the Terminator once was.

For balance outputs add $170

Have owned quite a few tube DACs from Metronome Technologie ( Talking many years ago with Dominique Giner about his favorite Burr-Brown 18-bit chip was fun, Accustic Arts, Zanden, Audio Logic ( Jerry Ozment was such a brilliant designer)  Audio Note 3 and 3.1,  Audiomeca and Audio Aero using Analog Technologies chips.  Went trhough the tube mods from Modwright, Exemplar Audio, APL. Nostalgia...
So what do we deal with now? ESS chips?  Looking at my Oppo 105 and 205 players now.  Boring.  I know, it's the chip implementation.  Still sold my Mytek DAC.Starting fresh, I guess I will follow Vassils' s advice and  will order a Tubadour DAC.

Just went to your website.  Really beautiful gear you have there!  And your mono blocks are stellar looking!
- Bob

I just bought The New Audio Mirror Tubadour 3 Dac and like most new audio it took about 10 Days of non stop usage to show you how Really GREAT this Dac is- in my opinion ....Its a combo of it being a R2R...with the  Analogue Devices AD1865NK chip and Vlads Stage/4 tube  implementation....I had a Schiit Audio Yggy 2 and it was to bold ...Vivid and could be unrelenting and sold it last week and was VERY glad to see it go...Its a great Dac-just didnt mesh with my system and was looking for something i could just lay back and listen to for hours...If your a fan of the better Audionote Dacs...This is the one to Listen to..Yep Yep...its that GOOD at a Very Fair Price....