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View Classified SOLD - SOLD - Border Patrol SE SPDIF (COAX input) R2R DAC - SOLD SOLD - SOLD - For sale is my Border Patrol SE SPDIF (COAX input) R2R DAC in perfect functional and excellent cosmetic condition with new NOS EZ80 vacuum tube (~20 hours). High quality, hand-crafted by the Border Patrol owner, and made in the USA (Maryland). I am asking $900 USD. It will ship from the Twin Cities, Minnesota 55337 USA. I will ship it via FedEx; local pickup/delivery is available. I accept PayPal, US Postal Money Orders, or cash if meeting in person. This is a great R2R DAC chip (TDA1543) with no over-sampling (NOS) and no digital filtering fed from a very sophisticated choke input, and vacuum tube rectified power supply that will make digital files and CDs sound natural and smooth, very close to vinyl. Please refer to the photos for the physical condition, as I could not see any scratches, dents, or cosmetic issues with my DAC. I can supply more photos upon request. Tube “rolling” is rewardingly addictive, and I was able to tailor the sonic signature by trying additional New Old Stock tubes, which I purchased online and in person. I am only including the new NOS EZ80 vacuum tube with ~20 hours on it. I would suggest you try other EZ80 and compatible 6V4 tubes in this DAC as they do change the sound characteristics. This DAC can also be used with vacuum tube “off” in the circuit if desired - depends on taste and type of music. The only time I enjoyed turning off the tube was with my Monoprice Monolith Liquid Platinum headphone amplifier and a few audio tracks, which seemed overly lush. 99.9% of the time the tube sounds better, but it is fun to experiment and have this option. There are many glowing reviews on this DAC and other “new” entry level R2R DACs. I was my second R2R DAC, and I like it better than the first (popular brand and all solid-state design), as the Border Patrol SE has a sweet, natural, open and organic sound and soundstage – these characteristics were the design goals for the Border Patrol SE DAC. Too many digital audio products sound processed, unnatural and un-involving and this is particularly true of many of the new generation of hi-resolution delta-sigma DAC’s. You’ll enjoy listening pleasure for hours without “digital” fatigue. I have thoroughly enjoyed it since the COVID-19 lockdown. I never used the stock power cord, as I have 10+ aftermarket power cords and enjoyed listening to the changes in the sound by swapping out different power cords. I settled on a “silver” power cord from TG Audio, which highlighted the detail and 3D-soundstaging characteristics of this DAC. I am only including the stock power cord, as the aftermarket power cords are dear to me. Border Patrol recommends to keep the DAC “powered on” 24/7 and just turn the tube on and off for listening sessions—this button on the front of the DAC powers the vacuum tube on and off. I only left the DAC powered “on” and the vacuum tube powered “off” on weekends, or when I could enjoy the DAC on multiple days/evenings in a row. Many Border Patrol SE owners have said this is the first DAC that they can listen to for long periods without irritation or fatigue and that lets them emotionally connect to digital music for the first time. Several vinyl diehards are now happily streaming and playing CD’s after previously giving up on digital audio. I am selling this SE DAC because I have brought home my “work” headphone audio system, which is another Border Patrol SE DAC that I purchased from the estate of a dear friend (it is not in good cosmetic condition). This SE unit is upgradable to the SEi version for $295, including return shipping from Border Patrol in Maryland USA. The “SEi” upgrade replaces the high quality “Musicap” capacitors with the Ultra Hi-End Jupiter beeswax cryogenically treated capacitors. After I sell this SE unit, I will consider upgrading my second unit to the SEi model, as I enjoy “changing” my music system. If you buy this SE, please enjoy it “as-is” and then if you like natural sounding “NOS” digital audio, consider upgrading it to the current SEi version and enjoy the transformation process, tube-rolling, and aftermarket power cords too! The SE DAC features: A non-oversampling (NOS), no digital filtering Phillips TDA1543 R2R DAC chip circuit with no output buffering. Plays files up to 24/96kHz via SPDIF(COAX) including TIDAL Master recordings. A painted copper metal chassis, which helps keep external (Wi-Fi, 2.4GHz, 5G, etc.) electronic/microwave noise out of the DAC. A tube/solid state hybrid choke input filter power supply featuring a vacuum tube rectifier. Border Patrol is the only company applying tube rectification and choke input filtering to digital circuits. Dimensions: W x D x H: 9 x 7x 3 inches (226 x 173 x 78mm) Shipping Weight: 8lb/4kg (it is solid and well built in the USA) Includes: Border Patrol SE DAC, Original box and packaging, original (“stock” OEM ) power cord, and manual are included. PLEASE NOTE: No extra tubes nor aftermarket power cords are included. This DAC is resolving and benefits from minor changes. I recommend you have fun trying different tubes and power cords to best match your system. Single Adult owner, no smoke, no funky smells, no pet, no children exposure—although I enjoy my friends' kids and pets, I don’t have any in my home. Seller bganz Date 07/25/21 Price 900.00 USD Category Digital to Analog Converters  

View Classified Wavelength Brick N2 This ad is for a Wavelength Brick N2 DAC. This DAC started out as a Brick V3 DAC and was upgraded by Gordon Rankin himself in September 2020, at Wavelength Audio. It’s essentially a new DAC as the board and caps (fancy Mundorf MCap EVO SilverGold Oil) are completely new. It comes with the optional - and better sounding, in my opinion - Mortar power supply for US electricity, instead of a wall wart supply (a $500 upgrade). I can throw in a generic power cord if you need one. Overall, the DAC is in very good shape. The Brick N2 is a tube NOS hybrid DAC. It uses a TDA1543 chip with a 12AU7. I will include a new JJ 12AU7 that sounds good, but the unit is sensitive to tube rolling. My favorite tube was an RCA clear top that I am keeping as I have other equipment that uses 12AU7. This DAC is USB only (with the better sounding low jitter asynchronous protocol that Gordon Rankin, the maker of the DAC, invented) and works flawlessly. No clicks, no pops, no weirdness of any kind. It is recognized immediately by my Mac Mini (I use Amarra). It will read anything up to and including 96/24. I use software to down sample the few 192/24 files I have and that also sounds great. This was my DAC for ten years. I bought it new from Wavelength. It always sounded really good as a V3 and the upgrade to N2 made it even better. Last year, mostly because time had passed, I tried to see if I could find something better and bought a (more expensive and more recent) R2R Holo Dac Spring 1 KTE edition (level 3), which got rave reviews from most people. It wasn’t even close to my ears. Even though the Spring has some qualities, the Brick V3 sounded much better overall to me: more musical, more balanced, more natural … and that was before the upgrade! As a professional musician, there is something that just sounds right about this DAC. I’ve used it to assess mixes and masters from my records (“The Turn”, “No Filter” etc). It's really that good. I think Gordon Rankin's expertise as both a high level tube amp designer and someone who understands the intricacies of computer audio really well has paid off with his tube DACs, including this one. As someone who prefers analog in general, I find this DAC to be devoid of the weaknesses and weirdnesses that so often creep up in digital audio. I think it's actually quite rare to find something like that. It's easy to live with and musically engaging. The only reason I am selling is that I am moving up the line of Wavelength DACs. I recently bought a fancier Wavelength Cosecant N2, so I don’t need to keep this. You can see/hear the DAC in my system here (iPhone recordings so hardly hifi, but it will give you at least an idea … Please copy and paste the YouTube links): Ray Charles: https://youtu.be/vEt7627ftc0 Bob Dylan: https://youtu.be/1vN781AzxsY Jerome Sabbagh/Greg Tuohey Group (from my record “No Filter”): https://youtu.be/evw6XuYzwf0 You can audition in Brooklyn, NY. No returns. Paypal +4%. I will ship, double boxed and insured. Any questions, please ask. Seller Jerome Sabbagh Date 06/22/21 Price 1,250.00 USD Category Digital to Analog Converters  

Wavelength Brick N2 View Classified This ad is for a Wavelength Brick N2 DAC. This DAC started out as a Brick V3 DAC and was upgraded by Gordon Rankin himself in September 2020, at Wavelength Audio. It’s essentially a new DAC as the board and caps (fancy Mundorf MCap EVO SilverGold Oil) are completely new. It comes with the optional - and better sounding, in my opinion - Mortar power supply for US electricity, instead of a wall wart supply (a $500 upgrade). I can throw in a generic power cord if you need one. Overall, the DAC is in very good shape. The Brick N2 is a tube NOS hybrid DAC. It uses a TDA1543 chip with a 12AU7. I will include a new JJ 12AU7 that sounds good, but the unit is sensitive to tube rolling. My favorite tube was an RCA clear top that I am keeping as I have other equipment that uses 12AU7. This DAC is USB only (with the better sounding low jitter asynchronous protocol that Gordon Rankin, the maker of the DAC, invented) and works flawlessly. No clicks, no pops, no weirdness of any kind. It is recognized immediately by my Mac Mini (I use Amarra). It will read anything up to and including 96/24. I use software to down sample the few 192/24 files I have and that also sounds great. This was my DAC for ten years. I bought it new from Wavelength. It always sounded really good as a V3 and the upgrade to N2 made it even better. Last year, mostly because time had passed, I tried to see if I could find something better and bought a (more expensive and more recent) R2R Holo Dac Spring 1 KTE edition (level 3), which got rave reviews from most people. It wasn’t even close to my ears. Even though the Spring has some qualities, the Brick V3 sounded much better overall to me: more musical, more balanced, more natural … and that was before the upgrade! As a professional musician, there is something that just sounds right about this DAC. I’ve used it to assess mixes and masters from my records (“The Turn”, “No Filter” etc). It's really that good. I think Gordon Rankin's expertise as both a high level tube amp designer and someone who understands the intricacies of computer audio really well has paid off with his tube DACs, including this one. As someone who prefers analog in general, I find this DAC to be devoid of the weaknesses and weirdnesses that so often creep up in digital audio. I think it's actually quite rare to find something like that. It's easy to live with and musically engaging. The only reason I am selling is that I am moving up the line of Wavelength DACs. I recently bought a fancier Wavelength Cosecant N2, so I don’t need to keep this. You can see/hear the DAC in my system here (iPhone recordings so hardly hifi, but it will give you at least an idea … Please copy and paste the YouTube links): Ray Charles: https://youtu.be/vEt7627ftc0 Bob Dylan: https://youtu.be/1vN781AzxsY Jerome Sabbagh/Greg Tuohey Group (from my record “No Filter”): https://youtu.be/evw6XuYzwf0 You can audition in Brooklyn, NY. No returns. Paypal +4%. I will ship, double boxed and insured. Any questions, please ask. Seller Jerome Sabbagh Date 06/22/21 Price 1,250.00 USD Category Digital to Analog Converters  

View Classified Wavelength Brick N2 This ad is for a Wavelength Brick N2 DAC. This DAC started out as a Brick V3 DAC and was upgraded by Gordon Rankin himself in September 2020, at Wavelength Audio. It’s essentially a new DAC as the board and caps (fancy Mundorf MCap EVO SilverGold Oil) are completely new. It comes with the optional - and better sounding, in my opinion - Mortar power supply for US electricity, instead of a wall wart supply (a $500 upgrade). I can throw in a generic power cord if you need one. Overall, the DAC is in very good shape. The Brick N2 is a tube NOS hybrid DAC. It uses a TDA1543 chip with a 12AU7. I will include a new JJ 12AU7 that sounds good, but the unit is sensitive to tube rolling. My favorite tube was an RCA clear top that I am keeping as I have other equipment that uses 12AU7. This DAC is USB only (with the better sounding low jitter asynchronous protocol that Gordon Rankin, the maker of the DAC, invented) and works flawlessly. No clicks, no pops, no weirdness of any kind. It is recognized immediately by my Mac Mini (I use Amarra). It will read anything up to and including 96/24. I use software to down sample the few 192/24 files I have and that also sounds great. This was my DAC for ten years. I bought it new from Wavelength. It always sounded really good as a V3 and the upgrade to N2 made it even better. Last year, mostly because time had passed, I tried to see if I could find something better and bought a (more expensive and more recent) R2R Holo Dac Spring 1 KTE edition (level 3), which got rave reviews from most people. It wasn’t even close to my ears. Even though the Spring has some qualities, the Brick V3 sounded much better overall to me: more musical, more balanced, more natural … and that was before the upgrade! As a professional musician, there is something that just sounds right about this DAC. I’ve used it to assess mixes and masters from my records (“The Turn”, “No Filter” etc). It's really that good. I think Gordon Rankin's expertise as both a high level tube amp designer and someone who understands the intricacies of computer audio really well has paid off with his tube DACs, including this one. As someone who prefers analog in general, I find this DAC to be devoid of the weaknesses and weirdnesses that so often creep up in digital audio. I think it's actually quite rare to find something like that. It's easy to live with and musically engaging. The only reason I am selling is that I am moving up the line of Wavelength DACs. I recently bought a fancier Wavelength Cosecant N2, so I don’t need to keep this. You can see/hear the DAC in my system here (iPhone recordings so hardly hifi, but it will give you at least an idea … Please copy and paste the YouTube links): Ray Charles: https://youtu.be/vEt7627ftc0 Bob Dylan: https://youtu.be/1vN781AzxsY Jerome Sabbagh/Greg Tuohey Group (from my record “No Filter”): https://youtu.be/evw6XuYzwf0 You can audition in Brooklyn, NY. No returns. Paypal +4%. I will ship, double boxed and insured. Any questions, please ask. Seller Jerome Sabbagh Date 06/22/21 Price 1,250.00 USD Category Digital to Analog Converters