My take is the Cardas and Mac gear both have rather "darker" playback tendencies and with the chain you have it is not freeing up the signal. Try a different preamp or some other cables. I would say your dac, Coda, and speakers are A-okay. That's my fly-by suggestion.
Big problem / bottleneck in my chain
Hello everyone,
I don’t know exactly where to post
Seems I have a big problem in my chain, but please let me first list my gears :
CD player Moon 260d used as a transport (but equipped with the Dac) => s/pdif Shunyata Alpha bnc => DAC Chord Hugo TT2 + mscaler => Cardas Golden ref. xlr => Mcintosh c2700 => cardas parsec xlr => Coda 16.0 => Cardas Golden ref. => Magnepan 20.7
While I realized I was not experiencing a difference between mscaler in or out the chain (yes I know some may argue mscaler is bs) , I was not either perceiving a tangible difference between the moon 260d used as a transport or the streamer Aurender N150 (on the same songs indeed).
So I started to suspect a bottleneck in the chain somewhere… as I expected the cd transport with a physical media to perform better than a streamer.
This afternoon, I did some experiments:
- plug the 260d as a cd player straight to the preamp using its internal dac
- plug the 260d as a transport to the TT2 (not using the mscaler) using the shunyata alpha bnc spdif
- plug the 260d as a transport to the internal dac of the mcintosh c2700 using a cheap spdif cable (internal dac is a da2)
i couldn’t hear any difference or nuances between the 3. If there was then I could hardly perceive maybe a little subtile more air using the TT2…but not that obvious.
I have always heard any difference in the past on any of my components (even on cables….) but here I don’t understand what is happening.
could it be the transport is the bottleneck and as such any dac will not make any difference ?
could it be that I should unplug the internal dac inside the 260d as it is influencing the sound as a transport only in some ways ?
I am really disappointed and lost. Should I sell my TT2 , mscaler and plug everything in the da2 of the preamp c2700.
or is it the transport being the weak link and finally whatever dac I am using (200 or 5000$), there is no difference
that really doesn’t make sense.
Any advice / feedback from real experienced, senior specialists ?
Showing 2 responses by bugredmachine
No offense intended to you @antmou I'm trying to help you as it seems you have a similar dilemma I experienced. And I remedied it with cabling. IME those Cardas cables are not helping you. They are lower tier or older recipes that are darker sounding. I have had the Cross, Golden Ref, and Reflections (and Clear and Clear Beyond which are not "dark") and can say definitively they are dark. I am offering this because I have spent stupid funds auditioning cables for 3+ years and agonizing over what the brands bring to the table. I like Cardas cables, but in this system those particular cables are not helping your sound. Some of the higher level Cardas brought great pleasure to me but over time I tired of their sound which always tended to be slightly veiled. When I was on this journey my system kept taking leaps up in performance due to cabling upgrades. I did not want to go down this rabbit hole but the time and money was well worth it to allow my components to sing. You have great gear. I think you can unleash the sound with different cables. Check my TN system page for some of my journey. Today I am smitten with Wywires Diamond or Platinum and have ended my journey (finally). There are others that are also very close to opening up the sound like Snake River. Some of the Synergistic Research cables have great air to them as well. Lots of great cables out there that can help your system sound. Happy listening! |