Maverick Audio Tube Magic D1 *Review*

Some of you may remember the thread I started a few months ago about getting a new DAC. After weeks of research I settled on this one.

Manufacture Link: http://www.mavaudio.com/base/product/tube_magic_d1/
Price Paid: $199 + $20 upgraded tube. Free Ship. *Presale price*


Current Setup:

Yamaha DV-S5860 SACD/DVD-A/DVD Player
Onix SP3 Integrated Tube Amplifier
Maverick Audio Tube Magic D1 DAC/Preamp
AV123 X-Omni Diamond Black Speakers

First thing I want to say about Maverick Audio before I start my review is that the Ryan, the owner, is great to work with and is excellent in responding to emails and maintaining communication. On top of the friendly service, shipping was fast and easy from Shanghai, China to San Francisco, CA via DHL. Shipped out Monday and got here Friday! How is that for speedy international shipping?

Packing and Initial Inspection

This thing is a ton heavier than I expected. Smooth, brushed black aluminum and very nice knobs for the volume and source selection. Still smells like it was recently assembled. Upon further inspection everything looks absolutely gorgeous from the delicate white lettering of the logo right down to the screws used to assemble the casing. I opened her up to take a peak at the internals and everything is as it should be. Here is a quick pic of the internals I've stolen from Head-fi.




I had the tube upgraded to NOS GE 5670W from the stock chinese tube for $20 more ontop of the presale price.

The packaging was excellent. Shipped in a very sturdy box with foam protecting the unit from moving and covered in a plastic sleeve. The contents also included a USB cable, auxiliary cord, power cord, 1/8" to 1/4" headphone jack converter, and a quick start guide.





Initial Impressions

Setup was a breeze. Plug your sources in, select source, done! You have two options for the analog out. One tube out and solid state out depending on what flavor of sound you wanted for your music. I opted for the tube out to start with since I love the tube sound so much.

Norah Jones - Come Away With Me

WOW! Quite the difference from using my cd players dac with this one. Clarity is a notch or two higher as well as the 'sound stage', giving me a more entertaining listening experience. It definitely feels warmer but not quite the impact I was expecting however after reading some other user experiences with this there is a burn in period that must be done before 'optimal audio nirvana is attained' whatever that means . A very (very) quick A/B vs the Yamaha's DAC there was obvious greater detail and separation improvement with the Maverick.

Overall I'm very pleased with my purchase. More impressions to come as well as the solid state out impressions. Stay tuned!

wait it has outputs to bypass the internal tube stage? or you can have it pre-configured at the factory to be one or the other?

very nice looking for $200, nice to finally see quality come in line with affordibility

Yes. Two outputs, one tube, one solid state by default from the factory. Also has a direct bypass to disable the volume control if needed. It has connections for everything you need which is awesome.
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Riddlinkidstoner said:

Yes. Two outputs, one tube, one solid state by default from the factory. Also has a direct bypass to disable the volume control if needed. It has connections for everything you need which is awesome.
Posted via [H] Mobile Device

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very nice

Awesome. I just hope it doesn't end like the Zero. With such a low sale price, the Zero was made with cheap parts (i.e. transformers) that let it die randomly within a year or so. It sounded good though.

Alai said:

Awesome. I just hope it doesn't end like the Zero. With such a low sale price, the Zero was made with cheap parts (i.e. transformers) that let it die randomly within a year or so. It sounded good though.

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Zero can die a fiery death. I had it, didn't like it, sold it.

The Maverick and the Grand Fidelity DAC share the same OEM but half the cost.

Maverick also has quite a bit in terms of upgrade potential.

I might jump on the Little Dot tube dac for comparison sake.

Update #1: Tube Out vs Solid State Out.

John Mayer - Why Georgia, Why

To put it very simply, the tube out was very relaxed and almost recessed while the solid state out was very strong, forward, and pronounced. The solid state out felt very punchy and precise, like science giving an almost appearance of being neutral despite playing on a tube amplifier. Overall I prefer the sound of the tube out for nice vocals while the solid state out for rock and hip hop. My ears were focusing much on the instruments rather than the lyrics with the solid state out.

Wow, this honestly looks exactly what I was looking for.

hey, how is the headphone output? (can it actually drive reasonable headphones)

also, for the headphone output, does it use the tube or the SS output?

I don't use headphones but supposedly its very capable.

Headphone out uses SS not tube.

Riddlinkidstoner said:

I don't use headphones but supposedly its very capable.

Headphone out uses SS not tube.

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well that just killed it for me

here I thought I'd found a tube buffered SS headphone amp with multiple digital inputs for about the price of a conventional tube buffer

*sigh*

obobski said:

well that just killed it for me

here I thought I'd found a tube buffered SS headphone amp with multiple digital inputs for about the price of a conventional tube buffer

*sigh*

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What does a tube buffer do anyway? Add tube flavor inbetween the transport and the amp?

Aww, why hide the tube inside?

Riddlinkidstoner said:

What does a tube buffer do anyway? Add tube flavor inbetween the transport and the amp?

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a tube buffer can do one of two things (it does both, but can be used for one of two reasons):

A) add tube distortion/flavor (whatever word you want) between your source (transport doesn't always mean source, at least not in the convention I was taught under) and your preamp/amp, as an "effect", just like an exciter or EQ

B) impedance matching

99% of the time people buy it for A, because you can have your tube distortion with your solid-state "perfection" (and c'mon, do you know how much a 200W/ch quality tube amp costs these days? )

Daishiknyte said:

Aww, why hide the tube inside?

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and this is why God gave us dremels and said "go forth, and void warranties"

Couldn't you just use a stereo RCA to 3.5mm adapter to plug in headphones to the tube pre-out?

ex0du5 said:

Couldn't you just use a stereo RCA to 3.5mm adapter to plug in headphones to the tube pre-out?

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The RCA output is not amplified. As far as needing a tube amplification I think you can stack a TubeMagic A1 on top of this and get the tube output.. Would have to talk to Ryan to be sure. I am really thinking of ditching my Asus card for this setup.

This is a bump, but this thread came up in my searches and since I'm already a relatively active member here I figured I'd post.

I'm about to buy this, though I'm planning on going with the stock tube for a hopefully neutral sound. Also the tubes are like 3 dollars online. How does the tube affect the sound?