Owner reviews

2026-10-18

Hector TVC preamplifier in passive mode: an owner’s review

Review of Hector

An owner who had always run his tube monoblocks straight from a DAC added a Hector passive preamplifier to his system in 2025. He wanted to set the volume from his chair without hearing the preamplifier itself. Below we…

2026-10-18

Tantal headphone output measured by Reference Audio Analyzer

Review of Tantal

Reference Audio Analyzer (RAA), a website that measures headphones, amplifiers and other audio equipment on its own test bench, has published a full headphone-output report on a Tantal amplifier by Demograf Audio…

2026-10-18

Sennheiser HE 90 on an 811 tube amplifier: a listening session

Review of Helios MkII

In December 2024 one owner got his amplifier on G-811 triodes back from Dmitriy Gubchenko after an upgrade and organised a listening session around it. He brought his whole chain of cables, network switches and power…

2026-10-18

A Demograf Audio class D amplifier prototype: listeners’ impressions

Can a class D amplifier from a maker of tube amplifiers hold its own next to a Gryphon integrated and an Audio Note tube amplifier? At an evening listening session, five listeners heard a prototype Demograf Audio class…

2026-10-18

CS4397 tube DAC and Tantal: one owner’s long-term review

Review of Hyperion , Tantal , Helios MkII

Over 2023 one owner built a headphone system around Demograf Audio electronics and wrote about it at length: a CS4397 DAC made to his order with interchangeable output tubes, a Tantal amplifier on 3C24 triodes, and a…

2026-10-18

Tantal 3C24 amplifier with electrostatic headphones: owners’ review

Review of Tantal , Hyperion

Tantal, the Demograf Audio amplifier on 3C24 triodes with tantalum anodes, drives electrostatic, planar and dynamic headphones from one chassis, as well as sensitive loudspeakers. Between 2015 and 2023 forum listeners…

2026-10-18

Demograf Audio 300B amplifier and CS4397 DAC: a headphone system reviewed by listeners

Review of Atlas , Hyperion

Between 2018 and 2022 one headphone system, built around a Demograf Audio DAC on the Cirrus Logic CS4397 and a Demograf Audio amplifier on 300B triodes, hosted several meetings of forum listeners. Its owner, known on…

2026-10-18

Tantal compared: Viva Solista, Sennheiser HEV 90 and the AL4 Rubedo

Review of Tantal

Two owners, eight years apart, set the Demograf Audio Tantal against amplifiers they knew well. In 2014 Alexander, a collector of electrostatic headphones, compared the first Tantal with his own Demograf Audio AL4…

2026-10-18

Aglaya review: the red Demograf Audio tube headphone amplifier

Aglaya is the name its owner gave to a Demograf Audio headphone amplifier on GU-72 tubes, built in a red case. It was made to order: it drives demanding planar headphones, has a front-panel output for electrostatic…

2026-10-18

6B4G tube amplifier with a CS4397 DAC: one owner’s Demograf Audio system

Review of Hyperion

One forum member, known as Bahobaho, has lived with Demograf Audio electronics for years. His system is built around a DAC on the Cirrus Logic CS4397 and an amplifier on 6B4G triodes. This article brings together two…

2026-10-18

Two early Demograf Audio headphone amplifiers: a 6B4G and a transmitting triode

Before the current catalogue, Demograf Audio built headphone amplifiers to order around whatever tube suited the owner. Two owners wrote about theirs in detail: a 6B4G amplifier bought in 2014 for a Sennheiser HD 800…

2026-10-18

Tantal 3C24 prototype: the 2014 listening sessions

Review of Tantal

In July 2014 a group of forum members gathered to hear a new Demograf Audio amplifier on 3C24 triodes with tantalum anodes: the prototype of what became Tantal. They brought a STAX SR-Omega, SR-009 and SR-007, a…

2026-10-18

ECL82 tube headphone amplifier: an owner’s review of an early Demograf Audio build

In October 2010 a forum member, andafan, received a headphone amplifier made to his order by Demograf Audio and designed by Dmitriy Gubchenko, on ECL82 triode-pentodes with output transformers, a tube rectifier and a…

2026-10-18

Prometheus DSD DAC: an owner’s first impressions

Review of Prometheus

In 2024 an owner of a Demograf Audio CS4397 converter heard the designer’s newer DSD converter, Prometheus, and later ordered one. Below we summarise his first impressions: how it compared with his own CS4397 converter…

2026-10-18

Hyperion vs Krell Reference 64: an owner compares AL4, EL8 and EF14 output stages

Review of Hyperion

One owner who lives with Demograf Audio converters on the Cirrus Logic CS4397, the design now offered as Hyperion, spent 2023 comparing them at length: three units with AL4, EL8 and EF14 tube output stages against a…

2026-10-18

Demograf Audio Hyperion vs Rockna Wavedream: an owner’s comparison

Review of Hyperion

In June 2022 an owner, Maksim, spent an intensive listening session comparing a Demograf Audio converter on the Cirrus Logic CS4397 chip, with an AL4 tube output stage, against a Rockna Wavedream DAC. The Demograf Audio…

2026-10-18

Demograf Audio Hyperion vs Lampizator Golden Gate II: owners’ comparison

Review of Hyperion

In August 2019 a group of forum members compared two tube-output DACs in the system of a Lampizator Golden Gate II owner: his Lampizator and a Demograf Audio converter on the Cirrus Logic CS4397 chip with an EL8 tube…

2026-10-18

Hyperion CS4397 tube DAC: owners’ reviews

Review of Hyperion

Owners of Demograf Audio converters built on the Cirrus Logic CS4397 with a tube output stage describe deep, fast bass, high detail without glare and an ease they call “analogue”. Below we summarise posts written…

2026-10-18

DAC chips compared by ear: TDA1540, TDA1541, TDA1547, PCM1704 and CS4397

Review of Reference Tube DAC , Hyperion

Between 2010 and 2017 owners of Demograf Audio converters built on different chips wrote about how they sounded side by side, often after sessions in Dmitriy Gubchenko’s listening room. The chips were the Philips…

2026-10-18

Demograf Audio Hyperion vs MSB Analog DAC: listeners’ comparison

Review of Hyperion

In September 2016 an MSB Analog DAC spent a few days in Dmitriy Gubchenko’s listening room, and two forum members came to compare it with a Demograf Audio converter on the Cirrus Logic CS4397 chip with an EL8 tube…

2026-10-18

Demograf Audio Hyperion vs dCS Debussy: an owner’s blind comparison

Review of Hyperion

In November 2014 the owner of a Demograf Audio DAC on the Cirrus Logic CS4397 chip, who posts as Rutger, took it to a fellow forum member’s home and compared it blind with his host’s dCS Debussy DAC. His unit was an…

2026-10-18

Aphrodite (TDA1547) DAC: owners’ reviews

Review of Reference Tube DAC

Owners of Demograf Audio converters on the Philips TDA1547, the vintage DAC chip now offered as Aphrodite in the Reference Tube DAC, describe a fast, detailed and dynamic sound with a full low end, a striking midrange…

2026-10-18

CD players modified by Demograf Audio: owners’ reviews of the Marantz CD-15 and Philips CD304

Alongside his own DACs and amplifiers, Dmitriy Gubchenko modified classic CD players for forum members: he replaced op-amp output stages with transformers or tubes, added tube clocks and external clock inputs, and in…

2026-10-18

Persephone (TDA1541) NOS DAC: owners’ reviews

Review of Reference Tube DAC

Owners of Demograf Audio converters on the Philips TDA1541, the chip now offered as Persephone in the Reference Tube DAC, describe a coherent, flowing sound in which musical lines stand out clearly, with high detail…

2026-10-18

Calliope (TDA1540) NOS DAC: owners’ reviews

Review of Reference Tube DAC

Owners of Demograf Audio converters on the Philips TDA1540, the chip now offered as Calliope in the Reference Tube DAC, describe a natural, involving sound that holds rhythm well and ties the parts of the music…

2026-10-18

Demograf Audio full-range loudspeakers: an owner’s review

In June 2015 an owner on an audiophile forum replaced his loudspeakers with a pair of full-range loudspeakers built by Dmitriy Gubchenko on 4A-32U4 drivers. He brought them home in the evening, set them up and listened…

2026-10-18

Interconnect and digital cables by Demograf Audio: owners’ reviews

Between 2011 and 2014 Dmitriy Gubchenko made interconnects, coaxial digital cables and power cables for members of an audiophile forum, and several of them wrote about what they heard. Most of these cables use a…