Thanks for the reply R. I did wonder if I'd misunderstood this.
Before posting, I checked as I'd thought that perhaps the tube was
only relevant to A-D conversion. I thought I'd confirmed, as I
understood, that you can feed a digital signal in and out of the ART
Dio and add warmth to the resulting analogue signal out, but I think
I misunderstood a 'loop though'.

However, this does open a can of worms for me and my 'hifi' hearing.
When I first got the Art Dio, I tried it as a D-A converter, with the
tube in, and adjusted the tube warmth and, to my hearing, I heard the
sound change and become 'warmer'/bloated as I adjusted it. It seemed
pretty evident to my ears and those of someone else listening. So
either I heard some real change or (oh no) my hifi hearing is as
psycho-acoustically biased as the next person.


JT



--- In DIOmods@yahoogroups.com, Robin Bowes <robin-lists@...> wrote:
>
> jtaytay2000 wrote:
> >
> >
> > I'm interested in trying a different tube in my ART Dio. I've been
> > using it for a long time, without the supplied tube, as everyone
> > advises, but, I'm wondering if anyone has gone for a different
approach
> > and tried changing the tube for a different and perhaps better
suited
> > one. I'm prompted by re-reading an article in Hifi World (back in
Feb
> > 2006)where they tried different tubes on a Shanling CD T80 and
found
> > the tube type could have a dramatic impact on the sound. This set
me
> > wondering whether the ART Dio was just better without a tube per
se, or
> > was it more down to the type of tube chosen. Some of the
descriptions
> > of ill suited tubes, given in the HFW article, could equally
apply to
> > the ART Dio with its stock tube, so a different tube, just might
do the
> > trick.
> >
> > If you have tried different tubes, could you let me know.
>
> The tube is only used for AD conversion, not for DA. So, you'd only
see
> (hear?) any difference if using the DIO as an AD convertor.
>
> R.
>