Breaking in the new tube DAC

[goraman]

Today I was waiting to pick up a prescription from the Dr. so I stopped by the local audio store and heard the upgraded Jolida FX tube DAC.
I asked to barrow it for an in home audition and 5 albums later I called to see if they would sell the demo. He said no but they have one in stock new in the box as his Demo has over well over 200 hours of break in and he said it had gone to so meany peoples homes that he would really rather just give me a new one.
I just hooked it up and as soon as my 2.5 year old is done watching Scooby Doo I'll get to hear it. I did take the new Tung Sols out and put some Ei 's in there place as I have always liked that 12AX7.

Here is the DAC I got.
http://www.musicdirect.com/p-59620-jolida-fx-tube-dac.aspx


This guy also seems to like the Ei 12AX7's now impossible to find the good ones.
http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?118115-Jolida-FX-Glass-Tube-DAC

[goraman]

2 hours in and my first impressions are SMOOTH as silk with a very nice balance,the tone is to die for. And believe it or not it uses Clarity Cap ESA to couple the transformer.
It's pretty hard not to like how smooth Diana Krall sounds with this set up.

[goraman]

I am now experiencing what Ali Tait talked about when using clarity caps as a coupling cap bass comes and go's, I noticed using them in my speaker cross over the highs would go from overly bright to dark and finally settled in wonderfully smooth and balanced.
I didn't go through this kind of wild break in with my old DAC. 10 hours now.

[Ali Tait]

Yes it's very noticeable isn't it? Never had it to that extent with other caps.

[Ali Tait]

If you like what the CC's do, think about trying some AN Coppers in the future, if they will fit in the case. Best caps I've heard in this application.

[goraman]

If you like what the CC's do, think about trying some AN Coppers in the future, if they will fit in the case. Best caps I've heard in this application.

Ali, WOW! $90.00 dollars for 1 uf and they have a pretty scary failure rate or has that been resolved?

[Ali Tait]

Don't know of any that have failed. Was that not the Jensen ones?

[goraman]

Don't know of any that have failed. Was that not the Jensen ones?

Maybe that's when Jensen made AN caps a few years back.
I seem to remember Peter Q. replacing them free of charge for his customers.
So ever since then I have avoided Audio Note capacitors but maybe the problem is long resolved?

I remember a flood of the questionable ones on ebay.

[Ali Tait]

Yes, pretty sure that was sorted a long time ago. I have several pairs and have never had a problem.

[goraman]

The break in of the Clarity Caps torcher the very soul bass just rolled off to flat out nothing over the last 2 hours.It had come back pretty strong yesterday.
What a pain in the arse,I wonder how meany people have totally freaked out during the break in period?

[Ali Tait]

Leave music on through the dac overnight with the amp turned off. That'll help break in.

[goraman]

Leave music on through the dac overnight with the amp turned off. That'll help break in.

I am nervous to do that as I once had a DAC go into extreme smoke, at the transformer as something shifted during a very ruff shipment that destroyed the box and packing.Seems it jolted the large tiroidal so bad it broke loose but made it several hours before making a direct ground on the output side. The company replaced the DAC with a new one no problem. but the first one filled the whole house with acrid white smoke before the left channel fried to silence while I was cooking shredded beef for tacos. So I don't trust electronics running while we are sound asleep or gone away for hours. The fuse never did get hot enough to pop at the power switch but the transformer was raging hot you could feel it through the case. I was told I switched it off just before it blew as the filament was stressed and bowing in the glass,a sign it was heated slowly to near failure.