Fireblade,

I don't know what your previous amplifer was but the transarency of the Mini *may* be showing you some faults with your front end. It may just need a little tweaking. Don't toss the baby with the bath water.

FB, You have a great amp and speakers, some nice interconnects, and OK USB and power cord....the latter could likely be improved, but they sound better than stock... right???? So it looks to me like gear-wise your DAC is likely your weakest link at this point......that is if your USB cable has isolated power from the audio...If not...hmmm, might find out if this matters with your DAC...does with mine!

Vibration control...have you gone there at all...to dip your toe in that water...a few things from Herbie's particularly, perhaps baby booties for your DAC and tenderfeet for the MT could be an inexpensive exploration.

But then room could easily be even more important than the DAC depending on issues there..... do you hear room problems? ...dead, deadened, or exaggerated parts of the frequency spectrum, poor sound stage, boom or muddle..... If not I would think your idea of investigating the JK DAC very thoroughly might be a good exploration.....actually, I bet you have done that...

I agree, with tube amps the Iso-Cups are clearly (to my ears) superior to the Tender Feet (which aren't chopped liver).

On some other components they aren't always better to my ears, but for amps, they're the ones.

And the beauty of addressing isolation is. . . odds are the pieces will work with present and future systems.

FB, If you rely on experience, then you are missing several areas of system refinement. For example...power separation from audio on your USB...If there is power noise from your computer that your DAC is not somehow isolating itself, and you eliminate it...this can definitely have a big impact on the refinement of sound. Your cable or DAC may already do this, but don't count on it. I would check this out.

Also vibration control. You could probably benefit greatly from something very simple, like grungebuster pieces under your stands and between the stands and speakers. A sheet of this is pretty cheap....but check with Steve at Herbie's. And as you said, you are planning to go here one day, so enough said.

And if you listen carefully to the sound spectrum and sound stage (should sound even, without particular funky places with extra hardness or bloat or edge or missing parts....and reflections can really hurt the sound stage...it should be well defined and saturated....and also wide and deep with well recorded stuff anyway.

Though stock tubes in my system sound pretty great, I would say it is way under what it is with better tube synergy for this room and my ears. I particularly think the rectifiers, inputs, and power VRs are great to roll in my MkIII...this of course could be different with the MT, but tubes are no small matter if you are craving a more refined sound to your tastes.

Remember that Decware can open sound doors others just can't hear, so our potential is rather huge, and what we can hear is often not present in many systems. Also, unless our Decware and room is sorted out and optimized, we can't hear its potential either...making some decware systems not reveal what they could. If it is not revealed, it can't be heard, so for that person, it does not exist. In my experience, it can ALL be heard, making subtle refinements rather big.

Finally you have to go the direction that makes sense to you according, not to the consensus, but from advisors you tend to believe...right??? If you listen to it all equally, it will be hard to do anything.

That said, since you are happy with your sound now, if it has no apparent problems, your sense of source as a next step is likely a respectable thought. How about emailing Darko and ask him if the JK would be a big upgrade from your DAC???

FB, the Starlight http://www.tweekgeek.com/wireworld-ultraviolet-usb/ (mentioned as better than the Forest in the review link) is the cable I use with my V-Link async unit and ZDAC. I know it isolates the power and sounds good if you find the Forest is not quite there.

I understand the tube dilemma... another area of confusion from one view, but of excitement from another. I also believe in Steve's ears, but suspect he voices the amp with the best he can of tubes he can acquire for production....this may or may not mean that he thinks this is the absolute best tube sound one can get from the amp. And this is aside from personal preferences and tuning an amp to one's system/room.

One thing I have found is that having a range to work with can be good...Just changing one recommended tube can help if it fits the criteria you are after compared to the qualities of your present tube, but it may or may not fit your sense of beauty exactly...But then... it could have attributes that could really be awesome with another tube change.....So a range of decent variation from the stock tubes can really open some great opportunities. A pair of rectifiers, power tubes, input tubes, and power VRs for example, each fitting criteria you like, could really open a lot of interesting mixing and matching, and very refined fine-tuning possibilities!!!

...but finding the bargains that are great  tubes, I can't help much as my tubes are different...except I know the nature of power VRs. I am pretty sure the MT rollers could point you to several nice tubes to explore, or tube sale people who are reliable to talk with and that can compare what they have to your tubes.

Are there qualities you can imagine that would improve your sound....more open and spacious...more dense and bigger bass, more texture, more warmth....

FB, Isolation products can help you with these issues, will help the soundstage develop, will help with instrumental separation, textural delinieation, etc.

Right, Will, thanks.  If you read my last post on the Mini-Torii threads, you will realize I'll be needing replacement tubes asap.  So, I'd probably profit to follow those guidelines when ordering the ones I'm currently urgently needing.

I'd been carefully studying the sound in my rig, and before it went off I came to the conclusion that it sounds more on the warm side than anything else.  That is, darker and more dense, bass-oriented.  That is why I was talking (unconsciously) earlier about openness and space as sound improvement objectives when tube-rolling.

OB3's or OC3's sound about right for what I sense I need, according to your description.  I'll look into the details.

Thanks again,
David.