After the long wait for the FetValve DAC, made by AVA, my first impression was of intense enjoyment in the midrange with the presence of air around the instruments and the closeness of the staging. But I soon realized what was missing, such as detail, taught bass extension, NO crispness in the high end. I found the music very lush, tubey and lacking instrumental detail and proper depth between stage setups. The board seemed to lack ALL the parts compared to the original brochure issued in 1997. Not using a true dual mono D/A converters? Overall, I returned the unit back and being charged for re-stocking of 12%. If you need midrange air, the old tube sounds from the 60's, this unit is for you. But for me there is a lot more information to be enjoyed by other D/A converters.

The below review is entitled to his/her opinion, but I can't find any faults with the unit. The highs on the unit are free from any artifacts of distortion that many people percieve as more detail and greater ambience. The mids are very transparent, i.e. voices and such sound naked. The bottom end is very transparent (and powerful) too; with this unit one actually realizes how different the quality, texture, and timbre of various low frequency generating instruments can be, assuming its a good recording, the rooms acoustics are good, and the rest of your system is really good.