Paradisea owners

I've been happy with mine, but can't help wonder what else is out there.

This is where it all begins....

God help you...or budha...or Allah...somebody, help poor Mingles!

Tvad, can you briefly explain the impedance issue? The input of my preamp is 100k. The Paradisea output is 800 ohms.

Yep, this is where it all starts! Before I do anything crazy, I'd like to try some different tubes. I haven't used anything other than the stock JAN 5670. I'd also like to experiment with output caps (Obbligato Copper, Mundorf SIO). Generally speaking, I can keep myself amused and engaged with tweaks like this if the unit is good to begin with.

With an input impedance of 100k ohms, you have no matching issues with either tube or solid state sources.

If the input impedance was under 40k ohms, or so, you might have heard roll off with the Paradisea.

Grant turned me on to the relatively inexpensive GE 5-star tube which does indeed sound great in the Paradisea. Beyond that, the cream rising to the top of many lists is the Bendix and the WE. Cheaper than a new DAC...

You may want to Check out the monarchy NM-24. Both tube dac and ss dac plus linetstage at that price point. Very impressed with this piece, with my only minor gripe cosmetics and the good, but not great linestage.

Disclaimer: I'm probably putting mine up for sale next month as I have a linestage already that I prefer and looking to try the MHDT havana.