Both of those pieces are so old, I guess they could be considered vintage. Vintage can be good, but with preamps and dacs, that's rarely the case. I think you're best move would be to get rid of your preamp, dac, and cd player and just get a modern CD player that has a volume control, like a Wadia, or something similar. It will be better in every aspect than what you have now. |
Hi Zd542!Thanks for your suggestion!Anyway getting a modern cdplayer like a Wadia with volume control I think it`s an investment of at least 7000 usd, too much money for my budget.I bought the EAD for just 1500 USD, very cheap taking into account they costed 6000 bugs new, and I`m very happy with it, but I`m just trying to get a proper preamp to connect it with.I don´t know if some elses have used this DAC with another preamp?.. I guess most audiophilers have used it connected directly to a power amp which is Ok , but have not the image I´m get accustomed to.Any other comments will be appreciated.Cheers.Raf |
I used to have one of those. Its not just about getting all the pieces connected, it still has to sound good when you are all through. Digital products that old, will suffer more from jitter because they were just learning about it, and it was a much bigger problem. That's the reason why the industry, at the time started to go from separates back to single box solutions. The way you have everything set up now, I can see why you are having the problem. If you don't want to sell anything, maybe try a reclocker between your transport and DAC. Given the age of the components, it should make a huge improvement.
Also, you can get a Wadia form much less than 7k. I have 2 of them. My 302 went for about 5k new, so you should be able to get one for around 3k. I also have a 861SE, but I still don't think I could get 7k for it. Maybe 5 or 6, but who knows. |
Hi Zd542.Many thanks for the valuable info!!I think I´ll take into consideration buying a used Wadia in the future, but in the mean time I would like to solve the problem with the components I actually have....Do you think for instance connecting an Audio alchemy transsmision interface between the cd player and the DAc could solve the problem of jitter?? or it just another old stuff and may be there are better re-clockers in the market not so expensive??If you can recommend me some good re-clockers I´ll appreciate it.Thanks again!!Cheers.Raf. |
The LS2 mk2 was a good line stage back in it's day. I owned one in the mid 1990s. But preamps have come a long way in the last 20 years. Modern preamps are infinitely better, even a 10 year old preamp would be a huge improvement. Cd players are the same way. I would buy a modern CD player and tube preamp that work well together. Just because you can buy a piece at a fraction of it's original price does not mean that it is a good value.
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I may be able to give you some ideas, but can you list your entire system? Be sure to include cables, tweeks, power products, etc... |
hi Zd542!Besides the components mentioned before, my sistem has PAD maximus xlr as interconnects,PAD Aqueous 20th anniversary biwire as speaker cable, PAD mueaus with Furutech Gold connectors, transparent ultra power bank conditionner and my speakers are Apogee Centaur ribbon.Cheers.Raf |
See if you can get someone to lend you a more powerful amp to try in your system. You're D200 may be straining to drive the speakers and the preamp is masking the problem to some extent. Just to be clear, I'm not saying your amp is not good, because it is. You may lack power, not sound quality. |
The best preamp to go with the dsp-9000 is the preamp inside the dsp-9000. What you've experienced is not a synergy mismatch, but the superiority of the dsp-9000 compared to the arc preamp. I strongly disagree with "the newer the better when it comes to dacs" statement. The numbers are newer, the samplings are higher, the jitter is claimed to be lower...... So what. The most musical dacs are still from the eighties. EAD, Sonic Frontiers, Metronome, Melos, Theta.
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Hi fonoman!
Many many thanks for your opinion!!!
In fact,it is very reasonable what you say., taking into account the quality of this brand.I agree 100 % that the newer dacs neccesarily aren´t the better.I had heard newer dacs with higher samplings and for me it was a collection of details but they lacked of musicality.Anyway I decided some time ago, to not use any preamp and go directly from de EAD dsp9000 to poweramp, which confirms your point of view.
Thanks again!
Regards!
Raf |
