Abbas DACs

Thanks for sharing this. It's very sad and I would not have know this without your post. RIP, Michael.

 

I connected Abbas with Cautes family and they are deciding what to do with the Abbas gear that Caute had in process with Abbas.

Sounds like it was an OTL amp and a DAC.

 

A simple like or heart isn't enough. From me personally, thank you so, so much for stepping up and doing this.

 

Happy to help. It's the least I could do and I happen to talk to Abbas often, because I'm enamored with his gear.

 

Came across this fine thread researching a suitable DAC for my Leben CS-600 amplifier coming from an Audio Note DAC 01.x that I sold to finance a new tube-based RIAA. I've been looking at Sonic Frontiers, Abbas, LAB12, SW1X and Trio - of out which the Abbas seems to get people most for the buck.

Two questions if you have the time: The DAC you got is the 0.11SE and not the DAC 1.1, right? And 2 - did you stick with it?

Thanks!

 

I believe caute loved the 0.11 so much he decided to upgrade.

@kasperbergholt the abbas 0.11SE is TDA1543 based, a higher end model of his would be a 2 series.
I believe it was 0,1,2,3 was the original numbering scheme but 1,4,5,U are none Philips. Dac 5.0 might be a good choice for yourself. GRANTED, these dacs tend to have issues with some transports, possibly due to the pll setup and the vintage of parts.

 

Thank you for the swift reply, appreciated! I think the 0.11SE hits the sweet spot in terms of budget and the ratio between listening to digital sources, on the one hand, and vinyl on the other.

Do you know if there's a list of transports/devices that don't function due to the older chips used?

Thanks again

 

They function, just the sonics some prefer some modified cd transports.

Think something diy like a Audio Note CD Transport level 6, but other ones are also good.

 

If possible I'd encourage you to listen to the your DACs of interest, I think there's a few of us that prefer Sonic Frontiers over Abbas including me. I think the SFD-1 and SFD-2 are just as good bang for your buck as Abbas. I haven't heard the other DACs you mentioned.

 

As a data point. I listened to Sw1x and Abbas and ended up with 2 Abbas dacs. To be fair, I did not have them in the room at the same time to do proper A/B, but I hope one day to do that . I know 2 other people who were considering Lab12 and decided to go with the Abbas. One owned a Lab12.

I have no experience using a transport with the Abbas as I just stream all of my music to it.

 

At the risk of adding nothing qualitative and for the sake of those interested, I'm currently working with Abbas on a new one-off DAC. I asked him about getting a DAC that was the tubiest of the tubiest and he recco'd the U1 with a PCM63 chip and a dual-6SN7 output and EZ80 rectification (I pushed for 5U4G but no luck... this time). I first bought an Abbas through Caute, rest in peace, but it never reached me and it took several months after that to want to attempt to revisit the idea. I was looking at Lampizator Baltics but kept coming back to Abbas and think I found what I'm looking for.

I'll update when I have some listening time in.

 

Any updates?

 

Yes, I actually started drafting a post here a couple days ago but kept falling into the trap of going back for another listen to make sure I wasn't just in the honeymoon phase. I've had it for about a week and have been tube rolling to dial it in, too. My U1 uses EZ80 rectification and 2 x 6SN7 output tubes and I run it from my Mac Mini via an SU-6 DDC. Dealing with Abbas was a pleasure, too.

So how does it sound? I originally got it because I wanted the "tubes on tubes" counterpoint to my Holo May KTE. I figured the May would provide the transparent, clean and accurate sound while I could get dirty with the Abbas running a tube DAC into my tube amps, at the expense of that clarity and separation that I love about the Holo May. It definitely fulfills the tubes-upon-tubes sound, there's a considerably more holographic experience, it feels like there's more surface area for the music to drape itself over, but what was surprising to me was that there was almost no drop-off in terms of clarity and transparency. I'm not even sure if I believe my ears, because there just has to be, right? But no, it's clear to me that the U1 is perfect for me, and I'm selling the May because I don't need two megabuck DACs and because I prefer the rich, musical sound that the U1 provides and the May sounds accurate but more lifeless to me (to be clear the May is not lifeless, it's amazing and was a bid, direct upgrade from my old Yggdrasil A2 before it, but when comparing to the U1, it is "more lifeless" than the U1). I had a Jolida Glass tube DAC a couple years ago, and thought I might be getting a 'better' version of that tube DAC sound but the U1 is not that, it's a completely different experience.

I'm still rolling 6SN7s through it, and have some new EZ80's coming in (I ordered a Mullard and a Brimar EZ80 when I first put the order in, they arrived and now I can't find them...). It came with 2 NOS GE 6SN7s and a Valvo EZ80. Interestingly, I do have a spare Valvo EZ80 with a slightly different label, and the switch to the other Valvo really upped the holography compared to the other Valvo. So even within the same brand, I'm hearing differences. I also used a couple dual 6J5 to 6SN7s and I slightly prefer that, but only slightly and is so far not worth not being able to use the case.

Still processing just what the U1 is/can be, but I'm so happy with it. Happy in the sense that I can just listen to the music and enjoy its rich, detailed and musical experience. I had a friend over for the 4th, and we swapped between the May and the U1. He is in the music industry but isn't really an audiophile - he loves music more than gear - but his take was that they were equivalent in quality, but the Abbas was more fun, more musical and I agree with that.

 

Awesome! Abbas really makes some special ger IMO.