Our industry has an abiding fixation with numbers. Whether it’s THD, wow & flutter, or signal-to-noise ratios, we love the finality of a specification. They define and create order allowing us to make sense of the myriads of components available. They are like the narrative closure of a Hollywood flick; they close the loop.

In the world of digital audio, numbers are king. We obsess over DAC resolutions, sampling rates, and bit depths, but do we have it wrong. Over the last few years, we have seen several Digital-to Analogue converters eschew the numbers chase to create products that attempt to deliver a more “musical” presentation. These DACs look to the past by employing “outmoded” chip sets in novel ways. One such component is the LAB12 dac 1 reference.

The dac1 doesn’t get much more retro. It’s a non-oversampling DAC with a vacuum tube output stage built around Philips multi-bit DAC chips “in a complex parallel configuration right after an efficient layout digital receiver stage, allied with two dual triodes tubes in a output stage.” Like I said, novel.

Sonically, this DAC really digs into the heart of the music. It’s thoroughly engaging with very good resolution (obviously not dCS levels). Tonal accuracy errs on the warm side of life which allows this unit to shine when recordings are good, while withdrawing the spotlight on those lesser albums. Maybe Rick says it best, “this thing is sweet. Guitars and voices ...! Notes just hang in the air. Velvety smooth. Not the last word in detail, but musical as heck. A real toe tapper!” Here, here, after all, do we really want to listen to the sound of numbers?