Syntax you are one funny man you made my day. |
Here we go again. Accuracy to audiophools mean lean and detail. Natural warm and organic is a coloration ha. How many times does it have to be said that live music not amplified is warm and organic. EMM Labs and Playback Designs are for sure in the lean camp. |
I think if you listen to a component long enough like 800 hours you get use to the sound. Its not until another person hears the system and points out that the sound is thin or the bass is boomy or the midrange is dark. |
Oh goody the Aesthetix will be in the house. |
At this point you might as well throw in the Gryphon dac. |
Matt keep going, I don't care how much dust is stirred up you tell it like it tis. |
We all love Albert, but don't forget he sells Porta Ports so that could give him more hits than usual. |
Lets all put 2000 hours or more and fully break in our components. How about 2 to 5 years and then just maybe they will be broken in. This is crazy you get use to the sound at that point, break in still I doubt it. |
I don't think anyone is denying that equipment needs break in. It just does not need 1200 hours to do it. |
Mattnshilp, check out the PS Audio CD spinner you can find this transport used on the Gon and sounds great. |
Digital to me is the hardest to get right versus any other component, but don't think analog is easy. You have the table, arm, cartridge to mate well with each other and then have to set up the cartridge which is no easy feat. You then need a great phono stage. Let me tell you analog aint easy, but the rewards can be great. |
Has anyone heard the Antelope Zodiac Platinum DSD dac? Some are saying this is one of the best out there now. |
Mattnshilp then you will need a HIFIMAN 901 with balanced card and the Mr. Speakers Alpha Dog headphones with good cables. It's not a free ride with portable audio. |
I also have the new boxter S with PDK and paddle shifters. All the high end cars are going to paddle shifters including the Ferrari's. Once you get use to them the shifting is way faster than using your hand and foot in the old traditional way. I love the car as it is fast and also very smooth ride not like a Corvette where you feel every little bump in the road. |
Paul79 I use Mullard 12AU7 10M in my preamp and they are my favorite. |
So what's the point of talking about this tube if you can't get it or have to spend 1500 a pair for them. I think I stick with my 10M. |
OK Paul, what 6922 do you like? |
Paul79 still cannot find the CBS7318. |
Grannyring any experience with Khozmo attenuators using naked Z foil vishay resistors in a preamp? There are also Dact attenuators and Amtrans Pots. How about a attenuator using all Path Audio Resistors. Some say Path resistors are the best especially at 35.00 a piece. |
Grannyring most 42 step attenuators are not Ladder type, but shunt 2 pole attenuators. When you lower the volume with the shunt type the input impedance drops from 100K so the impedance is not constant. Don't you think this type of attenuator will not work great with other tube gear like tube cd player and tubed phono stage. |
Mattnshilp I think you are on the quest to hear every dac on the planet, more power to you. If you continue there is no end to this task. I recommend to put your efforts into a good analog system. |
I sure would not spend past the 20K mark for a dac. As in one year there will be a new one at half the price and better. If you want to sell your old two year dac you will take a bath. Could you imagine spending 120k on the DCS stack and find something else better at 40k. Sorry with digital I'm not going the high expensive route. |
Matt all three speakers you picked are great. I think it will boil down to how well they mate with your equipment as well as your room. If you feel so inclined, you can describe the differences each bring to the table. |
I don't think they lack it as to they just don't care. My brother loves going to live Symphony but is not interested in music at all at home. |
Mattnshilp I think you would like the Boenicke W8SE or W20. Heard the W20SE at CES a few years ago and they were great. |
Don't waste your time on the Goldman's very a musical. |
Matt I wouldn't be surprised if you did keep the dynaudio speakers. I heard their flagship at CES a few years ago and they were great |
Grannyring, I'm pretty sure you would have felt differently if you used the Aesthetix as a dac only. The built in cd player is not very good. I have compared my Dac to my friends Yamamoto and I agree its good but it is not better. |
I have the Pandora Eclipse DAC, what do you want to know? |
Matt the Eclipse sounds great. It throws a huge stage width and depth. Most dacs I have tried did not throw as wide a sound stage. It is a very relaxed and smooth dac. No sound of that slight digital metallic sound. It does sound different with different tubes. |
It's funny that I totally have no interest what so ever in any Class D amplifier.
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The Romulus is popular because it sounds good. I'll take their Burr Brown Chip any day over a Sabre.
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Aesthetix does 2X DSD through USB.
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For all of you who did not go to CES this year, I will let you know my feelings. Oh, boy do they disagree with Valin, Harley, and Fremer. Best sound in order are 1) Gamut Zodiac speakers (139,000.00), Four M250i amps, and Pear Audio Table with Ortofon Cadenza Black cartridge. The sound was fantastic. It had a very realistic, dynamic sound that sound great on rock material and also had the finesse to sound great with jazz and classical. 2) Audio Note Kondo room of Japan with the Kaiser Kawero Classic speakers (90,000.00). The sound was super transparent and natural. 3) The MSB room with their new Select Dac and Amps (200 watts Class A) and YG Acoustics speakers. This is the first time that I liked the YG speakers. The sound was very analog like vinyl. This is the best dac I ever heard. 4) The Absolare room with their new integrated amp, UBIQ Model One speakers (13,750.00), and Memory Player 64. This sound was open, relaxed, and dynamic at the same time. 5) VAC room set up with the big Focal Utopia speakers. This was way better than the sound I heard with the same speakers a few years ago. I would have liked a touch more meat on the bones. 6) TAD stand mounted speakers and TAD Amplifiers and Dac. I love TAD speakers and this was a great room. 7) Metronome is back with the new BMW 803 speakers. The sound was very musical and relaxed. I like these way better than the old diamond series. 8) Devore Fidelity Gibbon 10 (15,890.00), Well Tempered Royal 400 table and 16 inch arm, Total DAC, VTL 185 monos, and 5.5II preamp. Firebaugh says this pivoted arm has the same amout of error as a linear tracking tonearm. I think the table will sell for 12,500.00. 9) Audio Research and McIntosh room with Sounus Faber speakers. 10) Kharma Equisite MIDI old speaker design, DCS dac. I played a master tape copy on 24/176 digital and the sound was great very dynamic. The bass literally shook the room. It was slightly soft on top. 11) Elac room with the new 500.00 stand mounted speakers. All I can say is excellent. 12) Vandersteen room was polite and boring. They should sound better than this from other years at shows. Now for the Bad sound not in any order. 1) The Kharma Equisite MIDI Grnad (225,000.00), LAMM electronics, EMT 927 table and SME 3012 arm (50,000.00) with the ZYX Univ. premium (14,495.00) cartridge. 2) Martin Logan Renaissance and Neolith in two different rooms and they both sounded terrible. Bright and Lean baby bright and lean. 3) Lansche speakers and Ypsilon where the top end was super open, but the mids were muddy. It is very hard to match a driver to that flame tweeter. 4) Rockport and Rel subs, PS audio amps and dac. The sound was dead, dead, and dead. 5) Aries Cerat Kassandra DAC and Horn speakers with their single ended amps. Oh, I was hoping for much better sound. 6) Meitner amps and the New dac and transport. It was on the analytical side. I am not a fan of Meitner gear. 7) Technics new tower speaker was very bright. 8) Sony's tower speakers were boring not very open. 8) Hi Fidelity cables only because they came out with speaker wire that sells for 35,000.00. The end so far. If anyone wants pictures let me know. Peace everyone
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Every time I add a new component to my system I have to change something to get rid of the ground loop hum.
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Steve I did not and I also did not go to the Mirage, Hard Rock or any other hotel that was not part of CES.
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I use to own the Chord Dac that retailed for 6,000.00. I wasn't crazy about it. The modded Modright Oppo I had at the time was better.
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I'm sorry to say that vinyl is still better, although I also enjoy digital as well.
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Dealers can no longer afford to carry anything if you and everyone keep buying used on the Gon. Just saying.
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Matt, just curious what did you not like about the Bricasti?
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Matt Nope, I checked the old comments and you said you liked it for one day and then it disappeared off the radar. You never said anything else about it. You must have not been that impressed.
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Mistake my friend, big mistake
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Matt when are you going to test in ear headphones for portable use. I would love to buy one that sounds good.
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I agree somewhat, but I feel a good sounding product should still measure somewhat decent. There are dac's out there that measure great and also sound wonderful. An example is the MSB mark II.
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Wig your Marantz would not be my choice for transport if used with dacs. I would suggest a PS Audio Memory Player as it is way more transparent than your cd player. I bet you would have liked those dacs more if you had this transport.
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My Bricasti delta sigma beat the pants off the total dac’s discrete d/a converter chips. |
I think you don’t know what your talking about. Delta sigma beat discrete how could that be if information is missing? |
My DSD is causing hick ups again. I'm going to have to contact Bricasti Monday and see if they can help. I tried connecting back to just the router and although everything works the sound is just not nearly as good.
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If the Bricasti was not used with Ethernet through it’s own internal board then no contest. Through usb it’s good but not great. I had the latest total dac and the Bricasti had way more dynamics. There was nothing about the total dac that was better. If you like hi fi sound then I could see how you could like the total dac. |
I played great Redbook and all sounded better on the Bricasti. If RTR is better it sure is not the total dac. I would love to hear the best MSB dac in my system and I could finally put this to rest. I loved MSB at shows but the 100,000.00 price is steep. Please someone bring over a MSB I’m in Michigan. |
