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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 ?

antmou

Showing 2 responses by deep_333

deep_333
1,821 posts
 

Treating a room to improve resolution is a rather intricate task and not cheap (for treatment that actually works). A couple of diffusers and absorbers (so many different ways they can be designed) made by whomever that’s put up in a decorative fashion doesn’t get rid of room resolution bottlenecks.

Further, spending more on certain types of gear is no guarantee of any breakthrough.... You don’t "get what you paid for" actually, in that sense. It comes down to the technical aptitude of the manufacturer. If you paid him more, it won’t guarantee that he got smarter. Every engineer is born with a certain amount of smarts and he won’t  just get smarter and smarter because you paid him more and more...very simple fact of life.

I won’t name any brands, but, hope that all makes sense. If it doesn’t now, it will someday.

 

deep_333
1,821 posts
 

Bottleneck ---> room (most probably), ears

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.

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