2 minutes ago, Artnet said:

I have heard a 2.2SE in a v good system and the small form factor are not to be underestimated.

Mind you calamity is all around us or is it just me 🙂

True. I can do without calamity in my own living room though.🤣

Edited March 19Mar 19 by Bisguittin

I came across this on PFM a comment by the Maker of Tron. Another fan of the TSA1541 chip.

The trouble with modern DAC chips sets, including FPGA designs, is that they output 2 volts, so only a buffer stage is required. That means in most cases an op-amp buffer stage like in Denafrips top DAC, or a discrete transistor or MOSFET output stage is used. Alternatively, with a tube output a cathode follower stage would have to be used. Both types of buffer stage are not great for good sound quality as they require feedback to work. I believe the latter is what is used in the Total DAC designs. Another advantage of the TDA 1541 is that it outputs about 30mV so you need a high quality amplification stage to get you to 2 volts output. This can be achieved with an elegantly designed discrete valve/tube output stage and this is where big gains in sound quality can be achieved, that is if it is done correctly.

Post #22

pink fish media

Nagra vs Audio Note

My dCS upsamples everything to DSD and it sounds gorgeous :) Yes, that what 'moother' means. I also upconvert everything to DSD256 with HQPlayer.

Edited March 19Mar 19 by PKay

1 hour ago, PKay said:

I came across this on PFM a comment by the Maker of Tron. Another fan of the TSA1541 chip.

I have had a Tron Seven ultimate phono stage in the past and Graham Tricker does a very nice job. I try to read his comments on PFM AMAPossible. I haven't heard a lot about his DAC but could be interesting. He commands a large price tag on some of his gear and its beautifully made

Dont need any more ATM thats for sure

6 minutes ago, Artnet said:

I have had a Tron Seven ultimate phono stage in the past and Graham Tricker does a very nice job. I try to read his comments on PFM AMAPossible. I haven't heard a lot about his DAC but could be interesting. He commands a large price tag on some of his gear and its beautifully made

Dont need any more ATM thats for sure

I have the Convergence MM signature phono with EAR MC4 SUT. Graham is very knowledgeable and an absolute gentleman to deal with.

3 hours ago, xlr8or said:

We should ask Mr Abbas to consider adding input or interstage iron to his designs. Drastactions of this magnitude will leave me sleepless until 2027.

I have posted this before an extraordinary non production 3.2 signature that when I look at it, Psyche definitely is related, it has some extras that may come with a Psyche2 in 2027?

3 hours ago, eyesofra said:

I hope so , but it's been 'only' 9 months so probably a few moons more. Looking at those delicious pics and details, I'm thinking if I should just get him to upgrade my order from Psyche SE to Signature ! lol.

If you can change your order and upgrade you definitely should! You won't regret it.

Some more details of the transformers. While Psyche is the sum of its parts these GD EI transformers are a marvel

The timber base they rest on was an extra as I recall

.

My ABBAS Psyche Signature is in the house. Absolutely loving it and enjoying the burn in process.

ABBAS has made an absolute masterpiece with this dac. I am very thankful. Not too much tube rolling yet.

Definitely worth the wait and is exceeding my wildest expectations.

LPG

23 minutes ago, Lansche plasma guy said:

My ABBAS Psyche Signature is in the house. Absolutely loving it and enjoying the burn in process.

ABBAS has made an absolute masterpiece with this dac. I am very thankful. Not too much tube rolling yet.

Definitely worth the wait and is exceeding my wildest expectations.

LPG

Great job with the quality pics! Could describe the sound character compared to other Abbas/Lampizator DACs?

6 hours ago, Silver Audiophile said:

Great job with the quality pics! Could describe the sound character compared to other Abbas/Lampizator DACs?

Pretty early days.

Dac was ordered and work started on my build in September 2024 and was finished end of March 2026 so almost 1 year and 7 months.

Dac arrived on Thursday having made it's way from Kyiv to Poland, Poland to Germany, Germany to China, China to Sydney and then onto Melbourne and then on a truck to me. Wow absolute shout out to the wonders of logisitics and those that organise freight around the world. Extra tricky with conflict in Ukraine and now Iran and fuel shortages.

Anyway dac has only had maybe 6 hours so far (was told needs a good 100 hours to show what it can do).

It replaced a 3.2 SE which was on loan from Artnet (thanks buddy). I will say, if he ever sells it (and he might now he has his Psyche) having heard it in my system and what magnificent sound it made i'd be reaching out to try and get it from him. Abbas is not taking any more orders for his limited run of 12 Psyche Signatures and he may do another batch down the track, who knows and his other big build dac's have long waiting lists due to the war in Ukraine and his fanatical meticulous hand build nature of these dac's). Anyway the 3.2 sounds absolutely wonderful. Meaty, full, rich, very analogue. Huge soundstage yadda yadda yadda. A big step up from the single chassis units which are already wonderful music making machines (especially the TDA 1541 based models). It was a hair less preferred over my ANK 5.1 Signature TOTL dac featuring the newest quad core transformers etc. Plasmod who i got it from had spent thousands on modified parts (Duelunds, Western Electric vintage wire, black gates, grounding boxes, Kassei's and mundorf silver gold evo's in the power supplies (needed 47 uf and space restricted so alas no Duelund's here), direct wiring bypassing the balanced board direct to the coax socket, Bendix tube sockets etc. Unfortunately my ANK is temporarily out of action thanks to a US $750 UU3 that died shorting it's plates and taking out my 5v rectifier transformer (a replacement is on it's way from ANK).

The 3.2 SE is already bonkers good and i'd be happy to live with that forever (or at least till the ridiculously modified ANK springs back to life).

Right from cold we put on the Psyche Signature and it had the same ABBAS sound just more of everything. It was one of those laughing like your a ten year old's in front of. a stack of donuts type moment. Pure musical bliss.

After a couple of hours of that it got lean and more impressive but less chunky, weighty and enjoyable to listen to for a couple more hours.

Then at around hour 5 it sounded the best it had so far. I replaced at this stage my R1 1541 (barely run in) with almost definitely the best 1541 ever made, my "Studer" double crown. Pretty significant improvement with that. At this point i was running the dac in to give it some more hours and it was around 2 am in the morning and I had to force myself from the listening chair and go to bed.

It's got around 6 or maybe 7 hours in it now and its just sounding sublime. We replaced the regular 6080's with some copper rod variants which made another worthwhile improvement.

There's way more to come but i can say that the sound is so good for me that if it didn't get any better i'd be crazy happy.

Apart from the "more of everything" comment i made above i'd say it does something i haven't really heard from other digital (and where it reminds me more of good reel to reel tape). It's got incredible weight and force all through it's range. Easy to get in the bass region but there is so much force and weight also through the midrange and treble regions where usually digital thins out. It has a wall to wall, floor to ceiling, way past the rear wall of your listening room type experience. Super natural sounding with stunningly beautiful textures and absolutely effortless. The speed and impact is also crazy. I've always loved the analog, vinyl like way of the ABBAS tube dac's reminding me a little of an idler drive style turntable. Well the Psyche Signature is like this dialled up to 1000.

The system it's in presently is using a highly modified Audio Antiquary pre, fully rebuilt and modified Trimax monoblocks (These were are the cleanest pair I have ever seen and they are wonderful ) (using KT77 tubes) into highly modified, custom JBL 4345's i had commissioned years ago and have modified heavily since (custom birch ply cabinets, NOS drivers, angel hair in the cabinet for the 18, 2 inch compression driver with short lens horn shoehorned in place of the starndard 1 inch, custom transformer crossovers with vintage oil caps (transformers also used for attenuation so no resistors in the signal path). These speakers are not your average 4345's and apart from looking similar are on a totally different plane to an original or regular modified pair. They totally killed a fully optioned out Kendrick Sound 4345 so it's a great reference speaker. It's in a dedicated custom home theatre / audio room Iwas originally a garage). The room has a super low noise floor and has very good sound. Will be trying some of the other speaker systems like the field coils soon and some of the single ended amps.

I'm not going to do the comparison to vinyl thing. It's been ages since i've put my vinyl on as i've been enjoying digital so much i haven't had the urge and i moved my analogue setup and need to spend a couple of hours connecting everything. I can say that it's incredibly vinyl like and i'm not talking only ok vinyl. I have a fully rebuilt with all the upgrades Marcus Dean Commonwealth with every part except the chassis replaced and updated on a 100 kg custom cast iron plinth and crushed garnet filled stand with a Shindo Mersault tonearm, Shindo SPU cartridge, Shindo phono cable and record weight going into a Einstein or custom tube phono. My Psyche Signature gives me the same sort of emotional response and feeling i get when playing vinyl through this rig.

Had 3 hard core audio friends over last night and everyone thought the ABBAS and sound was sublime. One of those mates usually hates digital and gets super board after a few minutes of digital setups. Not this time. With this quality of dac it's kind of pointless and irrelevant what source your listening to. It just sucks you deep into the music.

Have also heard Artnets Psyche Signature and he is getting absolutely magnificent sound also.

Everyone who has an ABBAS is very lucky and i'm so very thankful to ABBAS for making these amazing music making machines that transport us to a place of joy every time we listen to them.

LPG

Edited April 4Apr 4 by Lansche plasma guy
Added more info.

@Lansche plasma guy what type of rectifier is that?

8 minutes ago, Gryffles said:

@Lansche plasma guy what type of rectifier is that?

Early Mazda UU3. I have 4 of them. It's an early 4 volt rectifier, very hard to find but sounds wonderful. I'm also using it in my pre (replacing a gz34).

LPG

With 4v rectifiers (just like 5v and 6.3v rectifiers) be cautious to not overload the rectifier type with too much B+ as specified below.

Thanks for that table Kirk!

LPG

I was looking at the Abbas 3.2 SE for sale elsewhere and a comment caught my attention. I was wondering whether this applies to the 2.2 SE? Mine didn’t come with a manual.

VL3 runs the bias negative voltage of -15v and requires you to test this when changing tubes and every 12 months or less. It should not read below -12, -13, its a simple task but requires a multi metre.

43 minutes ago, PKay said:

I was looking at the Abbas 3.2 SE for sale elsewhere and a comment caught my attention. I was wondering whether this applies to the 2.2 SE? Mine didn’t come with a manual.

VL3 runs the bias negative voltage of -15v and requires you to test this when changing tubes and every 12 months or less. It should not read below -12, -13, its a simple task but requires a multi metre.

Is that where the seller is asking 8K? Is that what the model normally commands or is it because of the current difficulty in securing a new one?

6 minutes ago, RockRolley said:

Is that where the seller is asking 8K? Is that what the model normally commands or is it because of the current difficulty in securing a new one?

I’m not sure about price. It is pretty expensive but they are very difficult to obtain.

Never mind.

Edited May 25May 25 by muon*

2 hours ago, PKay said:

I’m not sure about price. It is pretty expensive but they are very difficult to obtain.

Yep, but they might be open to offers😉

6 hours ago, Artnet said:

Yep, but they might be open to offers😉

That’s my approach (hard to increase the price after listing), although when I bought my Abbas I simply paid the asking price. It’s such a great DAC.

6 hours ago, Artnet said:

Yep, but they might be open to offers😉

1 hour ago, PKay said:

That’s my approach (hard to increase the price after listing), although when I bought my Abbas I simply paid the asking price. It’s such a great DAC.

Really this DAC performs so well against much more expensive ones. It will sell it at the right price.

They remain such incredible value.

2 minutes ago, Artnet said:

Really this DAC performs so well against much more expensive ones. It will sell it at the right price.

They remain such incredible value.

I agree. My 2.2SE is pretty special. That and the Audial are my favourite DACs.

5 minutes ago, PKay said:

I agree. My 2.2SE is pretty special. That and the Audial are my favourite DACs.

Yep, I needed to raise some funds recently and nearly sold my ABBAS phono stage (couldn't do it) and then considered the 2.3se DAC. After serious listening and comparisons with my other very nice DACs, I realised nothing else could present such a convincing 'analogue' presentation free from any hint that I was listening to digital files. Being an analogue lover through and through I wanted to get the same level of satisfaction from my CD collection etc. That was the mission that lead me to the Phillips chips and tube DAC and ultimately the ABBAS. Mission accomplished. Not sure what the differences are between 2.3se and 3.2se, but looking at the ad it sure looks special.

20 minutes ago, RockRolley said:

Yep, I needed to raise some funds recently and nearly sold my ABBAS phono stage (couldn't do it) and then considered the 2.3se DAC. After serious listening and comparisons with my other very nice DACs, I realised nothing else could present such a convincing 'analogue' presentation free from any hint that I was listening to digital files. Being an analogue lover through and through I wanted to get the same level of satisfaction from my CD collection etc. That was the mission that lead me to the Phillips chips and tube DAC and ultimately the ABBAS. Mission accomplished. Not sure what the differences are between 2.3se and 3.2se, but looking at the ad it sure looks special.

Perhaps it was a transposition error🤔. Wishful thinking.

Having two inputs is great as well.