The Audio Mirror and MHDT DAC’s fall in the same category and have many fans also. I have a friend on another forum who just sold his Border Patrol to try out the Tubador SE.
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MHDT Orchid was on my short list but Linear Tube Audio (the USA distributor) had no trial period, all sales were final. Denafrips and Tubadour both looked promising, but I wanted a tube something. That led to Border Patrol with the upgrades. I love the copper chassis, even looks organic 
♂
The Audio Mirror has similar tube setup but I don’t know if Victor has a trial period or not.
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Wow, my first CD Player, an Ariston CD1 I had about 30 years ago was based on the TDA1541 chip.
It is an ancient chip, first introduced 35 years ago and decades out of production.
In certain circles it’s a very revered chip with folks literally “chip rolling” different versions of it. I knew nothing about it prior to looking for a more organic sound. After many hours of research, I was sold on the concept.
How much newer then is the TDA1543 in the Border Patrol?
Four years newer, released in 1989.
To my understanding, they are the same chip family. Both Border Patrol and MHDT use them
Then I have an impression how it sounds.
Some also swear on Sony PlayStation based players…there’s a fan group, too.
I once tried this player based on it. No need to talk about it, but looks interesting:
https://www.audioasylumtrader.com/ca/listing/CD-Player-Recorder/Avatar-Acoustics/DynaStation-2/79442
Thanks, strange…didn’t expect it’s still used! The Chassis looks nice.
Not merely “used”, but “revered”…
These chips were used in early Magnavox players. Coincidentally I just came across this post on AA.
https://www.audioasylum.com/audio/digital/messages/19/192847.html
Yes, really strange…my memory is „rolled off, anti transparent/revealing, without soundstage and much more“ but in today’s century might make really bad recordings sound tolerable.
Tastes are always different 
I can say the soundstage is bigger than the DirectStream Junior. It’s quite relaxed. But remember there’s a sophisticated tube rectifier choke involved as well as fancy capacitors. It’s not your father’s Dac 
And my new Hegel integrated matched well with it. FWIW, Part Time Audiophile says the Border Patrol is the best dac under $10K.
Well, it can’t be the best DAC under $10K for me because it doesn’t support DSD and 24/96 is its highest PCM rate. Plus, I am not a fan of the NOS sound. I would much rather have a DSD than the BP SE.
Yes, it’s only the Part Time Audiophile’s opinion, not a universal decree
You might as well stop using HQPlayer too…it is antithetical to your new DAC.
It all depends how you look at it. I have 400 DSD albums which HQPlayer downsamples on the fly to 24/88. Still sounds great!
Who really cares. You both like what you like for now and that’s all that matters. Just enjoy what you have and quit trying to convince everybody else that your preferences are the best option.
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