Oh my, oh my - Aries Cerat Helene DAC

I can't stay silent - today we received Helene DAC, "baby" DAC from Aries Cerat. What a baby, what a beauty. From the very fist second the sound was sublime, digital rarely gets better than this - in form of Kassandra DAC only probably. I am not saying this lightly, just compare Helene to all the big guns, you would be surprised. Rich, transparent sound, real body of instruments, timbre to die for, as analog as possible, but most importantly, natural music flow, touching your heart and soul. Be warned, after listening you might need to sell some very expensive equipment. But there is solution - you buy Kassandra LE, thus may be less painful.

 

Hi

We always say to turn off the equipment when not in use.
Tubes are not getting less rare and is a total waste to leave them on.

Ageto tubes have short life span.

Best
Stavros

Hi

We always say to turn off the equipment when not in use.
Tubes are not getting less rare and is a total waste to leave them on.

Ageto tubes have short life span.

Best
Stavros

What about the balance between hours on the tube and on/off cycles on the lifespan of the tube?
My practice has been to turn on at some point during the day and turn off after the last listening at night.

 

What about the balance between hours on the tube and on/off cycles on the lifespan of the tube?
My practice has been to turn on at some point during the day and turn off after the last listening at night.

Yes this is what we recommend,sorry had to elaborate more on that.. If you will have more than one sessions within the day, turn it up on first session and turn off after last one.

-Do not leave 24/7
- do not turn on-and-off everytime you want to listen within the day.

Best
Stavros

 

Hi,

I have been very satisfied with my Helene since 2 years now. Bought it second hand from a seller who was upgrading to Kassandra.
Considering its high output, I control the volume on the Lumin app, most often between 30 and 50% level, while preamp is set at 10am.
I just bought a CD drive to test a non-demat configuration, but then I have to turn the preamp to the very first step. Sound is not optimal at that first step and volume is still too loud. Also looking at alternative streaming than Lumin, but would face the same issue.

I read that some Helene dacs have a -6dB switch, mine doesn't
=> Is there a user-configurable adaptation possible to reduce the gain ?

Thank you !
(my config : Lumin u2mini with uptone LPS, DAC Helene, PBN Olympia pre and power amps, Wolf von Langa Stage speakers)

 

Hello

Yes for the first years the -6db switch was an option , and was made standard after couple of years.

There is a way to cut output by 6db without messing with the output transformer. It needs some soldering though.

Cheers
Stavros

 

Hi, I have a Pbn audio lxis preamp and I have had the same problem.

Peter for pbn told me :

You can however easily lower the gain of the LXIS so that the first volume step will be much lower in volume. Ill include 2 resistors for you to install on the LXIS PCB to lower the gain, you can then see if this suits you better.

I'll include 2 ea 15K Ohm resistors, insert them in place of the two jumpers circled JBAL on the left and the right channel.

 

Thank you both !
Indeed I also asked Peter who indicated the same mod, that I am ready to implement. Did you adapt your pre already ?
I asked Peter if the 10V input for the pre is an issue or would the lowered gain of the pre-amp compensate without sound degradation (thinking of any distorsion created upstream of the gain correction in the pre-amp, sorry if this makes no sense, I learned electronics 35 years ago and forgot most of it ...).
Theoritically, I would prefer to adapt the "uncommon" spec of the Helene, but considering my soldering skills, I don't see myself risking to destroy the Helene. Except if this soldering is extremely easy and reversible, Stravos ?
Also the Helene is 2 times heavier than the already heavy PBN pre-amp ... so I would adapt the preamp if Peter confirms there is no sound impact.
Thank you !
Marc

 

I never did the mod, unfortunately I have had too many issues (buzz, hum , soldering issue)with the Ebsa-1 monoblocks so I returned them to Peter without any refund...The HRX mono blocks I have had before were way better in sound quality and reliability.

My new stereo power amp (from USA too) already have a variable input gain included so the problem was solved.

For me , I will do the mods in the preamp to keep the dac integrety.

Best regards