Putting together a reference level system. My Source is predominantly standard 16/44 played from a MacMini using iTunes and Amarra. Some of my music is purchased from iTunes and the rest is ripped from standard CD's. For my tastes in music, my high def catalogues are still limited; so Redbook 16/44 will be my primary source for quite some time.
I'm not spending DCS or MSB money. But $15-20k retail is not out of the question.
Upsampling vs non-upsampling? USB input vs SPDIF?
All opinions welcome.
And I know I need to hear them, but getting these ultra $$$ DAC's into your house for an audition ain't easy.
Looking for musical, emotional, engaging, accurate , with great dimension. Not looking for analytical and sterile.
And if everyone noticed, I didn’t say anything except complement all involved in the recent reincarnation of the very same R2R/DS DAC conversation. Simply because it was informational, educational, respectful and completely avoided any absolute statements. In this hobby, there are no absolutes. Only opinions. And we have all learned from the great input recently posted from this great community!
I have watched over this thread for years and always tried to keep it respectful, free of drama and conflict. As a result we have nurtured a community of open opinion, educated involvement and mutual respect. I take enormous pride in what this thread has become.
Im not sure why, but I think that George takes offense that I feel a sense of paternity and responsibility towards this thread and act as a pseudo-moderator. As I said before, I sincerely apologize to George and anyone else if I have ever said or implied anything directly or interpreted as offensive!
A prime example of how interpretation varies amongst individual readers. With a name like Schitt it is the perfect and inevitable target for word play. I believe that the company intentionally chose this name for this very purpose and expected effect.
Matt’s suggestion to George to start a thread regarding R2R DACs seems to be the logical next step given his repetitive and numerous posts on this subject. It’s apparent to me that George has very strong opinions concerning R2R conversion. This would provide an outlet for his beliefs and perspective. Charles
George, not sure why your waiting for a confrontation with me. It’s like your looking for one. Just waiting for me to post just the right opportunity and then pounce. I apologize if I have offended you in some way. I’m like the least offensive person on the planet. Let’s bury the hatchet and move on.
Really looking forward to the Baetis coming tomorrow. Stay tuned.
Actually, I took it as a joke; I saw it for what it was and didn't give it a second thought. It did not appear to be an inside joke or kidney punch - just a little fun. Matt has been the OP of decorum and civility and provided a wealth of knowledge for us all to benefit from for a number of years now. I think in the spirit of all things Dac-related, we should get this massively-popular 78-page thread back on track.
mattnshilp OPWho would buy a total piece of Schitt like that?!!
Sorry. Had to be done!! 😇
david_tenMatt, You may have intended it as a joke, but it does not read like a joke. I can see how the second line "Sorry, Had to be done!!" would lead one to a very different conclusion.
+1 David, I noticed his post is now removed, but it went a bit deeper than that, from way back.
Quote mattenshlip: "Hi guys. For the first time on this thread, I'm putting an end to this. No more R2R commentary and no responses. You have made your opinion very very clear. If you want to continue I encourage you to start your own thread about how awesome you think R2R is to the exclusion of all else."
Ok. Thankfully the moderator erased my post. It never happened. Except that we all now know that GeorgeHifi thinks I select equipment based on price and bling. Maybe I do. ;)
To move on....
Everyone NEEDS to go see The Greatest Showman. To true music lovers, it’s an emotional roller coaster. I had that lump in my throat after for almost 15 minutes. Couldn’t talk, on the boarder of laughing and crying. For those that know what I’m talking about, you get it. It was truly wonderful. Take your partner and make a special night of it!!!!
Matt has been nothing short of a class act from the inception of this thread... Thank you Doc for all of your time,energy, and honesty that we all have benefited from in dacdom land...
David_Ten - I apologize if It was interpreted that way. The “it had to be done” comment meant that a joke about the name “Schitt” had to be done since no one else had made one. I have ever ever , in 4 years, insulted a product by using profanity or degrading anything or anyone. I have said I don’t like something and then explained why.
I’m not sure how a personal insult would be justified even if I had meant what you suggest.
Apologies to anyone who took offense at my statement. It was a joke. Not an insult.
Matt, You may have intended it as a joke, but it does not read like a joke. I can see how the second line "Sorry, Had to be done!!" would lead one to a very different conclusion.
Onwards to learning about DACs and your journey with them. I have to catch up on a few videos...Google's been notifying me. : )
Wow GeorgeHifi, my statement was a simple joke about the word “schitt” which people have been doing forever and, I am pretty sure, the marketers of Schitt counted on to help get their name known. We all know it’s a super performer for the money; a great value and a brilliant marketing campaign. My statement was an utter and complete joke.
Your statement, on the complete other hand, was a spiteful, intentional insult meant to belittle my entire process, my system and a direct and obvious personal insult.
I wont justify a response. I’ll allow the thread to continue on the previous topic without interruption.
I think this is still top DAC. The Schitt isn't in this convo. Guys, I would counter that many of us have listened to it vs a few other similarly priced DAC's and we liked the Ayre Codex better. It also costs less at 1800. This is a very competitive price range and yes, the Schitt is very good, but so are many others.
The same thing holds true at the top end of things. Matt has a system that is different than any of us. There are many great DAC's that folks need to audition. We all have different ears, tastes etc... so there is no absolute. Heck, I had Steve's OSDE/SE adn LOVED it. I still think it is one of the top DAC's I've listened to and I've heard many of the upper crust DAC's. I even got to hear the Trinity DAC some years ago (was the best by far that I've heard, but it's been too long to really say what it sounds like now vs the others).
I'm sure the Schitt guys will jump all over me, but it's like taking about any 5k speaker and saying it's a great buy in a thread talking about Vandersteen System 9 (yes, my favorite so far), Tidal's, Wilsons, Magico, B&W and any other speaker that's in the 80k plus range. They can't compete regardless of your ears, room or system. JMHO and those of a few others on this thread.
For the money, the Schitt Yggdrasil. Everything you read about this thing is true and its convinced me that R2R design is the most musical and natural sound. I would be surprised if I ever purchase another delta-sigma design again.
For the money, the Schitt Yggdrasil. Everything you read about this thing is true and its convinced me that R2R design is the most musical and natural sound. I would be surprised if I ever purchase another delta-sigma design again.
I’ve been fiddling behind the scenes with some really cool isolation pucks and cylinders and such. I’ve got some more coming in and then I’ll post a report. I think these little guys are VERY equipment dependent so I’ll try to give some general guidelines as well as my specific results in my system.
Stay tuned.
Also, Dr. Dave the Audio Doctor is coming Monday to bring some usb cables and his Baetis to play. That should be super fun.
Wisnon. You’ve been a Lampy fan forever! I think their newer stuff (GG and forward) have the quality of production to be taken seriously. I have heard several rooms at shows with great current Lampy gear! I’m sure you get a lot of enjoyment out of your system !!
Still dont have any Dac envy at all, with my current updated Lampi GG 1 with superclocked USB and separate discrete Ladder PCM and DSD256 attached AND separate chipless DSD512 engine. 2 Jacks in 1 box, so to speak!
I have a host of 13 rectifiers (most vinatge and bought for like $10 a piece) and 10 pairs of DHT output tubes including some exotics like the EML anniv mesh 45 globe and the vaunted Kron 242. I cant tailor the sound to any genre and can look forward to "upgrades" when trying exciting new tube combos. Fun with extreme SQ.
I will couple that 50% of the equation with optimal transport, ie my DIY linear power supplied i7 server that is audio optimzed Winserver2016 with the current champion combo of Roon/HQP or the FULL Lauferteknik software bundle on their turnkey SLC NAND SSD solution. optimized BIOS, OS with revised byte structure, Full IDEAS suite, Stealth Mode Win10 OS, DeFractionalized storage, clock mapper for extreme jitter reduction, and a host of other useful app...mated to a matched JRiver 23 structure. The Win2016 is already superb and I expect some step up with the MPlayer environment. I will use the Win2016 setup for upsampling and the JRiver MP setup for native rate. Dual boot OS on separate SSDs and separated 5v LPSUs. Should be a Transport setup worthy of the stellar GG.
Al, you are dead on. It’s a repro of the Philco 90. I couldn’t find an affordable original. I’ll show my other trinkets on a deprecate video. Thanks for noticing.
Matt, I enjoyed watching all four of the videos, including the one that just went up with the live piano playing. And on my computers, at least, the somewhat low volume and low lighting weren’t any problem at all.
In fact to me the only slight downside of the low lighting, as a collector of antique radios, was that I couldn’t tell for sure if the cathedral radio on the left side was an original or a modern repro. I’m guessing it was a modern repro modelled a bit loosely on the 1930s Philco 90 :-)
Matt, I used to love those speakers lol. Too funny. That Brinkmann is a great Dac. I’ve heard it a few times. It really shined last year in the Vandersteen room at one of the shows. My Ayre QX 5 has a hair more detail, but it won’t touch the musicality or size of sound stage that the Brinkmann has. It’s also twice the price but this is about best.
Smer319 - I have heard great things about the Brinkman. Sounds like a rather unique product and I’d love to hear it, and the new Meridian. I started with a Meridian DAC and surrounded professor years and years ago. It was very very good with my Classe multi channel amp and Aerial Acoustics 10T speakers, which I still have.
I like the Brinkmann Nyquist Tube DAC it's sonically accurate. Sounds more like Analog then any other DAC as Helmut used his Brinkmann Balance turntable when he was voicing the DAC. This DAC is Tidal, Roon and MQA Capable.
I also like the Meridian Ultra DAC. Like the Brinkmann it's awesome at all fronts. Musically the Meridian Ultra DAC is amazing as a PreAmp too. Basic CD Resolution and MLP make ordinary recordings sound much better.
Since this thread has developed into a general discussion about digital sources and that I have found that power cables to be critical , I was wondering what pc’s you have found worked best in your system and with what digital source and dac. In my particular case I have found the Mola Mola dac and fidata server to work exceptionally well with pc’s by Sablon.
Matt, thanks for keeping the socks on. Will it be a different color for each video? PLEASE don't take them off!!!! Thanks for taking the advice to heart.
I like the feet, fwiw. Great to see where you are now auditioning all this gear. Clearly the room is adding or taking little away and letting the equipment shine. Thanks for sharing, add significant value to the overall thread.
Question, did you do fine tuning to add or subtract various acoustic treatments to get the final sound you were looking for? Secondly, what was your source for the various acoustic panels?
Sorta did the visible foot wiggle intentionally. I thought it would create a sense of casual welcome, and give a subtle visual cue to connect to my voice.
thanks for the initial comments. The volume seamed ok when I watched it on my phone. But I will be mindful of that.
I have so much to talk about. Please subscribe so I can feel the love. Lol.
ill try to do a few early and quick and then slow down to one a week if I can.
post comments to ask questions and make suggestions!
Nice room!
The audio level on the YouTube video is a bit low.
I find the audio level to be fine. The opposite of Steve, meaning I could lower the volume (on a laptop PC with internal speakers) mid way and it's still fine.
Matt - You are off to a good start. One thing though. The audio level on the YouTube video is a bit low. I have to put my volume slider to the max to hear it well.
You definitely have the right kind of diffusors behind the speakers. I would be interested in how these speakers work and what all those drivers are. Also, I would expect more rugs on a hard floor like that. It must be very live.
Hi everyone. Sorry to go off topic to the off topic topic that’s currently the topic, until we get to the main topic. lol.
I FINALLY did it!!!!
i started my YouTube channel. For anyone who has wanted to see my room and listen to be rattle on about my thoughts, origins, journey and all while staring at my system and listening to it through your speakers, this is your chance!
Please subscribe and tell any of your audio friends to check it out and subscribe. They will only be 5-15 minutes, so quick to watch and hopefully riveting!!
post comments to ask questions and make suggestions!
Lol - Dark matter? Try Brian May lead guitarist of Queen / he is actually an astrophysicist! I know almost nothing about that. I did read Stephen Hawkings original Black Hole Radiation paper when in high school but never pursued that side of Physics as fascinating as it is - I must have read that in the days when Scientific American was actually Scientific - it has now devoted into populist Cult Cargo science as Feynman would say if he was still alive.
Yes and no. The ERC-3 is a CD player, and does have its own internal DAC (delta sigma). It also has digital output capability which bypasses the internal DAC. I am using the digital AES/EBU output and have it connected to the Yggdrasil AES/EBU input. (which by the way, Moffat claims AES/EBU to Yggy is best)
You must have a verified phone number and physical address in order to post in the Audiogon Forums. Please return to Audiogon.com and complete this step. If you have any questions please contact Support.
