spend my money DAC or Tubes?

Ok I have started to get the Jones again. I have between 300 to a bit over 1k to spend on some type of upgrade. I am considering new tubes for my cary slp98p pre or a new DAC for my denon 5900.

Couple of things. I have sacds which couldn't go thru the DAC but I am suspecting a new DAC would do nice things for my cd collection. But I would have to buy another pair of interconnects as well. I currently have a squeezebox in my secondary system but have no immediate plans to move it.

So my considerations - rca nos 6sn7s or the CBS hytrons or on the DAC side a rega DAC or the wyred for sound DAC or DAC2. I know those dacs are quite a bit different. I have heard the rega Saturn and liked it. If anyone has heard these or would like to help me consider spending my money please chime in. Thanks Tim.

if your tubes are on the down side of the aging slope I would go with tubes if not I would still go with new tubes

thanks wrat....

I have the Chinese brown base 6sn7s... They are not that old - probably have a year on them... I think that is the route I am thinking as well since I can conceivably improve my sacd & cd performance. Currently, things sound pretty good... just looking to improve a little if I can... If I go this route there is also no need to purchase the additional set of interconnects. I had started a thread on tubes for this awhile back and have saved off the thread... so there were a lot of fine recommendations there.

If anyone has heard the rega or wyred for sound dac - please give your impressions... thanks tim.

timm said:

thanks wrat....

I have the Chinese brown base 6sn7s... They are not that old - probably have a year on them... I think that is the route I am thinking as well since I can conceivably improve my sacd & cd performance. Currently, things sound pretty good... just looking to improve a little if I can... If I go this route there is also no need to purchase the additional set of interconnects. I had started a thread on tubes for this awhile back and have saved off the thread... so there were a lot of fine recommendations there.

If anyone has heard the rega or wyred for sound dac - please give your impressions... thanks tim.

Click to expand...

I own the W4S DAC2 - love it - it does what it's supposed to do which is dissappear. But as you state, no DSD support (unless you DSD->PCM transcode -> HDMI de-embed like I did... but that involved more boxes and more cables... and more scratch).