Battery powered DAC

I compared the Nixon with the similar Ack! and immediately chose the Ack!. I have since compared it favorably to the EAD DSP 7000 III and with a very nice and smooth recent Van Alstine. The Ack! runs on batteries, always a major improvement, with the added advantage of no powercord to imrove upon. I've upgraded my Ack! significantly by replacing the 3.3 mF AuraCaps with Dynamicaps, a pair of 5 mF and a .01 bypass per channel. It really opened up and the bass improved big time. I use it with an EAD T1000 with a Mapleshade/Insound Zepher dig link. Extremely open yet smooth, dead silent with wonderfull dynamics; the best I've heard.

Dear Viggen, I was outa town.

I can't remember which Nixon. It was tubed and in a black plastic case. Incidently, Pierre Sprey of Mapleshade would insist that it would sound much better in a maple wood box. He's very strong about the negative qualities of plastic as a dialectric. I just was discussing the ack and the cap mod with him and he suggested that the extra 5 microfarad on each channel was most likely unnecessary, stating that the DynamiCap and particularly the bypass might have been the real poiint here. I don't remeber whether I added the second 5 or the bypass first. I'll revisit it.

I did the Nixon/ack comparison with stock units of both. The Nixon was softer, grundgier, not as clear, not as silent a background. I didn't take alot of time with it because it was pretty clear to me which I prefered. It's not suprising to me given the battery and simpler circuit of the ack.

My system consists of the above mentioned transport and dac into a modified Cary SEI LX20 giving 20 watts single ended into modified Gallo references using all Mapleshade/Insound cables and power cords; pretty tweeked and well set up, halfway into the long length of the room with the listening position fairly nearfield at the apex of a right triangle in a 13x24x9 room with roomtunes.

Another thought, gleaned from musings on the Sutherland PhD: it seems there would be great sonic and logistical advantages to having a cheap AC/DC supply that could be simply switched in for convenience listening and to keep the circuit warmed up. The sonic advantages of batteries are huge and way cheaper to boot than a properly designed AC PS. It's a no contest if you ask me. Until you've heard a battery supply you won't get it, perhaps.