Organik DAC vs. Mola Mola Tambaqui: Comparing DACs with PWM modulation

Dear Linn Community,

I am reaching out to gather insights and opinions from anyone who has had the opportunity to conduct a direct and in-depth comparison between Organik DAC (possible with new classic Hub in Stereo or Dual Mono module) and the Mola Mola Tambaqui DAC.

As many of us know, both converters represent a radical, proprietary approach to D/A conversion, rejecting off-the-shelf chips in favor of a discrete, custom design.

The point that interests me most is that both DACs utilize a high-speed, low-distortion conversion scheme that relies on an unusual, proprietary PWM (Pulse Width Modulation).

This fundamental technical similarity (despite the implementations being vastly different) leads me to believe the two DACs might share a similar sonic philosophy (?)

Any feedback, especially if based on listening in reference systems, would be extremely valuable.

Thank you in advance for your insightful contributions.

Warm regards,
Giuseppe

I’m not sure what you mean by “sonic philosophy”, but if that’s a thing, I guess the Raspberry Pi 4, which uses PWM for its analog audio output, has the same sonic philosophy as the Tambaqui and the Organik and costs less than 1% of those high end DACs.

At the end of the day, a DAC is a black box, and you can’t really judge its performance by what the manufacturer says it does internally. Also, I’m not sure how proprietary the technology they use is, but it looks to me it’s still the typical architeture many DAC chips use: conversion to a high-frequency, noise-shaped, two-level signal they call “PWM”, followed by analog low-pass filtering.

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Grazie, Marian.

I appreciate you taking the time to write. I’m simply interested in seeing if anyone has listened to both DACs and can provide some feedback on the sonic differences between them. That’s all.

Thank you again for your input.
Giuseppe

I like the Mola Mola, and it is on my short list.

I think you should really head over to What’s Best Forum since you seem eager to be persuaded to spend big by audiophiles, waxing lyrical about electronic audio devices measuring orders of magnitude better than human auditory capabilities.

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You must listen for yourself to judge different varieties of streamers.

I chose my streamer after a lengthy listening session at home and in a dem room.

My streamer of choice is a Linn Klimax DS/3 with Organik dac and Utopik power supply.

The Tambaqui is still going strong in my system. After some adjustments and fine-tuning, I seriously doubt I’ll need anything better. Linn products are truly top-tier, but unfortunately, the Klimax DSM is in a whole different price point.

I hsve the older style Klimax DS, not the ÂŁ35k version!
Merry Christmas to you.

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