Abbas dac 2.1 se

[Treehaus Audiolab]

This just popped up for sale on US Audiomart for those looking:

ABBAS Audio 2.4SE DAC

I have a fantastic condition ABBAS Audio 2.4SE DAC available for sale. This is one of the initial builds with the "GD Works EI Transformer" and loaded with NOS Tubes. It will ship with a few spares as well for you to tube roll.My price includes UPS Ground ShippingPayPal F&FText to...

www.usaudiomart.com

 

[roymor]

Hi everyone,
New proud owner of Abbas DAC 2.41 signature.
Wonderfull piece, really. Still learning.
Rest of the equipment:
Speaker: Wolf Von Langa Ultima
Amps: Pre/Power - tube based. 300B, 9W
Source: Abbas joined my Accuphase DP-720

Findings so far:
1. Tubes matter - the signature version comes with very good tubes, but you can further voice the dac by rolling some tubes. I changed the output 6SN7 to the wonderful Tung Sol VT231.
2. The WM8804 24/192 receive did not really work as intended. It still only accepts 24/96 and generates click/noise when switching 44.1<—>48 material. Was not able to get to understand if Abbas has a solution for that.
3. Input matters - the quality of the SPDIF has a dramatic impact on what you can achieve with this unit, the ultimate result came when using the Audio-GD DDC with an external Master afterdark clock.
4. Sound ! - best I had in my system. It has everything, details, stage, clarity, musical….

Now wondering if I need the bigger machines

Cheers
Roy

 

[treitz3]

Hello @roymor, please allow me to offer you a very warm welcome to the What's Best Forum. Congratulations on the Abbas. While I don't run with one, I have heard them and they do produce a very nice sound IMO.

FWIW, I had the same issue when I first paired my streamer to my DAC, and it was annoying. But for some unknown to me reason, that has since subsided and I don't recall hearing it in the past year or so. It just started to slowly fade away.

Nice setup BTW.

Tom

 

[titleist85]

Hi everyone,
New proud owner of Abbas DAC 2.41 signature.
Wonderfull piece, really. Still learning.
Rest of the equipment:
Speaker: Wolf Von Langa Ultima
Amps: Pre/Power - tube based. 300B, 9W
Source: Abbas joined my Accuphase DP-720

Findings so far:
1. Tubes matter - the signature version comes with very good tubes, but you can further voice the dac by rolling some tubes. I changed the output 6SN7 to the wonderful Tung Sol VT231.
2. The WM8804 24/192 receive did not really work as intended. It still only accepts 24/96 and generates click/noise when switching 44.1<—>48 material. Was not able to get to understand if Abbas has a solution for that.
3. Input matters - the quality of the SPDIF has a dramatic impact on what you can achieve with this unit, the ultimate result came when using the Audio-GD DDC with an external Master afterdark clock.
4. Sound ! - best I had in my system. It has everything, details, stage, clarity, musical….

Now wondering if I need the bigger machines
View attachment 156416
Cheers
Roy

Hey Roy,

I also ordered the DAC.
How long did the delivery take? Did you buy the additional tubes?
Did you ask Abbas what the issue with the WM8804 is?

Cheers Patrick

 

[roymor]

Hey Roy,

I also ordered the DAC.
How long did the delivery take? Did you buy the additional tubes?
Did you ask Abbas what the issue with the WM8804 is?

Cheers Patrick

Hi,
Build took time, I think I ordered it even before Abbas published the 2.41 update.
The TS tubes, I had in my collection.

About the WM8804, Abbas tried to explain that the TD1541 does not support 24/192, but I was not able to understand from him whether this means it is only a better 24/96 chip (lower jitter) or it actually was suppose to support 24/192. About the click sound, he mentioned that this is known for the WM and does not happen in the “older” CS receiver, Still, I was left confused on this front. Still, it is not a major issue and I hope to get a resolution in the future as this board is exchangeable.

You made the right choice, this is a very good DAC indeed.

BR
Roy

 

[titleist85]

Hi,
Build took time, I think I ordered it even before Abbas published the 2.41 update.
The TS tubes, I had in my collection.

About the WM8804, Abbas tried to explain that the TD1541 does not support 24/192, but I was not able to understand from him whether this means it is only a better 24/96 chip (lower jitter) or it actually was suppose to support 24/192. About the click sound, he mentioned that this is known for the WM and does not happen in the “older” CS receiver, Still, I was left confused on this front. Still, it is not a major issue and I hope to get a resolution in the future as this board is exchangeable.

You made the right choice, this is a very good DAC indeed.

BR
Roy

Hey Roy

really looking forward to the 2.41 Signature, currently have the 2.0 and I’m already quite happy with it. How big was the difference with the Tung-Sol tubes, by the way? Do you remember which tubes were originally installed?


I also had the impression that the 2.41 Signature could handle 24/192, at least that’s what I thought Abbas told me.

When did you place your order for the DAC?

Cheers Patrick

 

[roymor]

Hey Roy

really looking forward to the 2.41 Signature, currently have the 2.0 and I’m already quite happy with it. How big was the difference with the Tung-Sol tubes, by the way? Do you remember which tubes were originally installed?


I also had the impression that the 2.41 Signature could handle 24/192, at least that’s what I thought Abbas told me.

When did you place your order for the DAC?

Cheers Patrick

I think the initial order was on Feb and I got it early July. But I know that some of the build time was longer as I needed to wait for the new 2.41 boards and case.

As for tubes, I got mine with Zenith 6SN7. I don’t think it is a matter of better, it is a voicing drill throughout the audio chain. The signature version gets very good tubes and I would say you can keep it as is. Further rolling is for tuning.

 

[LanschePlasmaGuy]

Hi everyone,
New proud owner of Abbas DAC 2.41 signature.
Wonderfull piece, really. Still learning.
Rest of the equipment:
Speaker: Wolf Von Langa Ultima
Amps: Pre/Power - tube based. 300B, 9W
Source: Abbas joined my Accuphase DP-720

Findings so far:
1. Tubes matter - the signature version comes with very good tubes, but you can further voice the dac by rolling some tubes. I changed the output 6SN7 to the wonderful Tung Sol VT231.
2. The WM8804 24/192 receive did not really work as intended. It still only accepts 24/96 and generates click/noise when switching 44.1<—>48 material. Was not able to get to understand if Abbas has a solution for that.
3. Input matters - the quality of the SPDIF has a dramatic impact on what you can achieve with this unit, the ultimate result came when using the Audio-GD DDC with an external Master afterdark clock.
4. Sound ! - best I had in my system. It has everything, details, stage, clarity, musical….

Now wondering if I need the bigger machines
View attachment 156416
Cheers
Roy

Hi Roy and congratulations!!

I'm still running my 2.2 SE while I wait for my ABBAS Psyche Signature (has been almost a year now but it's a much bigger and more complex build).

I'm running a Studer double crown 1541 in mine with gun tubes and I agree the tubes make a huge impact on the sound as does the connection type. Have you tried ABBAS USB/SPDIF tube converter? It was a massive upgrade to the sound of mine. It's also very responsive to what you place it on and the feet underneath it.

Do you have photos of your Wolf Von Langa's? I'm using Wolf's largest field coil midrange compression driver in one of my speakers with a Klangfilm midrange horn open baffle with a Palladin field coil 15 inch woofer and the combo is magnificent. Definitely an end game solution in a reasonably compact package.

I and friends are always amazed at how well the baby ABBAS works in these sorts of systems which are way out of proportion to the modest cost of his little dac. It creates satisfying music where other dac's including the MSB Premier / Powerbase as one example were great but I was always itching to change to something else. The ABBAS is just so musical and enjoyable to listen to.

LPG

 

[limberpine]

3. Input matters - the quality of the SPDIF has a dramatic impact on what you can achieve with this unit, the ultimate result came when using the Audio-GD DDC with an external Master afterdark clock.
View attachment 156416
Cheers
Roy

Can you share more abotu the DDC and master clock? Is this to help with playing CD's or streatmign or both? What does each add to the sound?

 

[roymor]

I'm running a Studer double crown 1541 in mine with gun tubes and I agree the tubes make a huge impact on the sound as does the connection type. Have you tried ABBAS USB/SPDIF tube converter? It was a massive upgrade to the sound of mine. It's also very responsive to what you place it on and the feet underneath it.

Do you have photos of your Wolf Von Langa's? I'm using Wolf's largest field coil midrange compression driver in one of my speakers with a Klangfilm midrange horn open baffle with a Palladin field coil 15 inch woofer and the combo is magnificent. Definitely an end game solution in a reasonably compact package.

I and friends are always amazed at how well the baby ABBAS works in these sorts of systems which are way out of proportion to the modest cost of his little dac. It creates satisfying music where other dac's including the MSB Premier / Powerbase as one example were great but I was always itching to change to something else. The ABBAS is just so musical and enjoyable to listen to.

LPG

I'm using the Audio-GD DI-25HE, which is doing the USB-SPDIF conversion. I also had history with MSB up to the Reference level.
* Wolf Langa is amazing, it made all the difference for me after years of building systems.

Did you upgrade the TDA chip your self to the double crown ? did it make a significant change ?

 

[roymor]

Can you share more abotu the DDC and master clock? Is this to help with playing CD's or streatmign or both? What does each add to the sound?

The DDC is Audio-GD DI-25HE and I use the Afterdark (double emperor) 10Mhz master clock to clock both the DDC and my streamer.
I use it only for streaming but if you have an I2S output for your CD it can also support it.
Working for the DDC/master clock is elevating almost everything in the sound, it injects air and expands the sound stage significantly. It is just a way to bring the most out of the DAC.

 

[LanschePlasmaGuy]

I'm using the Audio-GD DI-25HE, which is doing the USB-SPDIF conversion. I also had history with MSB up to the Reference level.
* Wolf Langa is amazing, it made all the difference for me after years of building systems.

Did you upgrade the TDA chip your self to the double crown ? did it make a significant change ?View attachment 156447

Your WVL's look great!! I'm sure they sound wonderful.

Hard to go back after hearing good field coils. My WVL field coil midrange driver weighs almost 20 kg and runs from 500 hz up in the Klangfilm front horn, The Palladin 15 inch field coil handles duties from 500 hz down, using the standard and a slightly modified version of the Klangfilm crossover. I have a helper compression tweeter just adding a little around 10 khz up but almost all of the work is being done by those two drivers. Being in an open baffle the sound is incredibly lifelike and very beautiful. The speakers totally disappear and unlike most TOTL speakers music is well scaled and swells with the music in the same manner I hear in a concert hall or good venue. Being open baffle and with such high quality drivers you hear absolutely everything. They have amazing transparency and you can hear every little change in the system. Rolling different vintage caps at the moment which is a great deal of fun and very instructive.

The second speaker i have that use field coils are the Rullit Super Aero 9 in a front loaded horn with the paladin again filling in the low end around 180 hz (The bigger front horn being built will change this to somewhere between 80 and 110 hz i'm guessing). Amazing speakers again and very different but no less good than the Klangfilm based open baffle system. All the field coil drivers above have incredible relaxation with blinding speed and what seems like an almost infinite variation in tonal and dynamic scaling and tone. Very beautiful to listen to.

Even my modest ABBAS dac is very enjoyable in this system (though not at the level of the ABBAS). The Psyche Signature will be very interesting to hear.

I bought the dac second hand (along with a pcm56 ABBAS 4.1 SE which was also great but not at the same level to my ears as the TDA 1541 version).

Luckilly for me my ABBAS had the Studer double crown 1541 chip already installed which had been purchased at a decent cost (and they are pretty hard to find). I can't tell you what difference the chip would have made over the stock other than to say i've owned these chips before (in a "Killer Dac") and it was by far the best sounding 1541 variant i've ever heard (think of the difference between a pretty average generic 300b and a Western Electric or the difference between a regular 5u4g and a brown base GEC U52. I will be putting it into my Psyche when it lands.

LPG

 

[titleist85]

I think the initial order was on Feb and I got it early July. But I know that some of the build time was longer as I needed to wait for the new 2.41 boards and case.

As for tubes, I got mine with Zenith 6SN7. I don’t think it is a matter of better, it is a voicing drill throughout the audio chain. The signature version gets very good tubes and I would say you can keep it as is. Further rolling is for tuning.

Ok, then I will use the tubes as they are for now.
Did you only swap the 6SN7 tubes or also others?

Did you ask Abbas again about the 192/24 issue?

 

[roymor]

Ok, then I will use the tubes as they are for now.
Did you only swap the 6SN7 tubes or also others?

Did you ask Abbas again about the 192/24 issue?

I will advise you to have a replacement set of tubes (as I did). Always good to have it if you need to troubleshoot in case of tube failure.
I specifically tried also to swap the rectifiers but Abbas's stock tubes sounded better to me.

Still waiting for Abbas to advise on the 192/24 issue.

 

[titleist85]

I will advise you to have a replacement set of tubes (as I did). Always good to have it if you need to troubleshoot in case of tube failure.
I specifically tried also to swap the rectifiers but Abbas's stock tubes sounded better to me.

Still waiting for Abbas to advise on the 192/24 issue.

Ok, maybe I will swap the 6SN7s as well.
Where did you buy the Tung Sol?

Where are you from, by the way?

Could you let me know once you get an answer from Abbas regarding the 192/24 issue?

Cheers

 

[IIIIIIIIIIIII]

The DDC is Audio-GD DI-25HE and I use the Afterdark (double emperor) 10Mhz master clock to clock both the DDC and my streamer.
I use it only for streaming but if you have an I2S output for your CD it can also support it.
Working for the DDC/master clock is elevating almost everything in the sound, it injects air and expands the sound stage significantly. It is just a way to bring the most out of the DAC.

Using an Audio-GD digital interface as well, though the Audio-GD DI-20HE which seems to be discontinued now. I was aware there is the possibility to connect an external clock, but was not aware of the improvements this would bring. Did you try different clocks?

 

[roymor]

Using an Audio-GD digital interface as well, though the Audio-GD DI-20HE which seems to be discontinued now. I was aware there is the possibility to connect an external clock, but was not aware of the improvements this would bring. Did you try different clocks?

No… only been able to compare with or without the Master clock. The AGD has a fine internal clock and you need to invest quite a lot in a good clock. It is about the grade of the clock. Moreover, in my case also the streamer and network switch are using the same clock which likely also have an impact.

 

[roymor]

Ok, maybe I will swap the 6SN7s as well.
Where did you buy the Tung Sol?

Where are you from, by the way?

Could you let me know once you get an answer from Abbas regarding the 192/24 issue?

Cheers

My Tung Sol are the VT-231 round plates and are quite rare… I sourced them from someone in Germany.
Will update if I get an answer from Abbas.

 

[jespera]

Your WVL's look great!! I'm sure they sound wonderful.

Hard to go back after hearing good field coils. My WVL field coil midrange driver weighs almost 20 kg and runs from 500 hz up in the Klangfilm front horn, The Palladin 15 inch field coil handles duties from 500 hz down, using the standard and a slightly modified version of the Klangfilm crossover. I have a helper compression tweeter just adding a little around 10 khz up but almost all of the work is being done by those two drivers. Being in an open baffle the sound is incredibly lifelike and very beautiful. The speakers totally disappear and unlike most TOTL speakers music is well scaled and swells with the music in the same manner I hear in a concert hall or good venue. Being open baffle and with such high quality drivers you hear absolutely everything. They have amazing transparency and you can hear every little change in the system. Rolling different vintage caps at the moment which is a great deal of fun and very instructive.

The second speaker i have that use field coils are the Rullit Super Aero 9 in a front loaded horn with the paladin again filling in the low end around 180 hz (The bigger front horn being built will change this to somewhere between 80 and 110 hz i'm guessing). Amazing speakers again and very different but no less good than the Klangfilm based open baffle system. All the field coil drivers above have incredible relaxation with blinding speed and what seems like an almost infinite variation in tonal and dynamic scaling and tone. Very beautiful to listen to.

Even my modest ABBAS dac is very enjoyable in this system (though not at the level of the ABBAS). The Psyche Signature will be very interesting to hear.

I bought the dac second hand (along with a pcm56 ABBAS 4.1 SE which was also great but not at the same level to my ears as the TDA 1541 version).

Luckilly for me my ABBAS had the Studer double crown 1541 chip already installed which had been purchased at a decent cost (and they are pretty hard to find). I can't tell you what difference the chip would have made over the stock other than to say i've owned these chips before (in a "Killer Dac") and it was by far the best sounding 1541 variant i've ever heard (think of the difference between a pretty average generic 300b and a Western Electric or the difference between a regular 5u4g and a brown base GEC U52. I will be putting it into my Psyche when it lands.

LPG

Can we see pics of those speakers please.?

 

[cal3713]

Can we see pics of those speakers please.?

Hahaha, I just sent a PM last night asking if he had a system thread where I could see them too.