Rick,
A fully broken in Golden Gate playing PCM and better still DSD...wouldnt be a fair fight, no matter what mods are in the Yggy. It would not be pretty. |
My advice would be to upgrade the Transport before looking to change Dacs.
Perhaps the Sonore Sig Rendu doing i2s to the DS Dac...or a CAPs server with Win2012 Audiophile Optimiser with HQ Player upsampling to high rate DSD....or using a SoTM-100 as a Network audio player in-between?
To be economical, you could also get an Auralic Aries streamer and eventually mod it for even higher performance. Their firmware update yesterday apparently lifetd it up a notch. |
Just spent the day with a pre-production Dartzeel LHC-208 Integrated amp/ethernet streamer/Dac. It is da bomb. 200wpc and costs circa $13K.
Will be ready in about a month or 2. only downside is that its already backordered. |
Pity,
As I said the Transport is half the equation here and the DS is compatible with the SS Rendu via i2s HDMI cable.
This is a superb link as it has a ethernet to i2S conversion board (with clean/isolated power distribution network) inside it that galvanically isolates the crud from packetized data streams like Ethernet and USB. THEN to avoid recontamination, it uses the Low voltage diffential signalling (LVDS) to stream i2S DIRECTLY to the DS Dac...stopping all the upstream crud from contaminating the Dac. Ultra elegant solution. The SSR is also benefitting from clean power inside it, as no switchers are used throughout.
Only like 7 Dac brands are compatible and the DS is one, so an almost tailor made solution, emulating the tightest possible integration between dac and Transport.
A reclocker here would be a waste of money as Ted Smith guaranteed an elaborate reclocking scheme for all input into the DS, as all incoming data goes thru the same preparation process into the same buffer.
On another note, the soon to be released dartzeel LHC-208 has a 2 clock system and the 2nd master clock in not in any PLL circuit and he says that is the special secret sauce he has for that sweet/fast analog sound |
FSmith,
I hear yah.
If you do the Aries, get the more expensive one with the double clocks (one dedicated to the USB) and the LPSU. Also, get the soon to be released Regen USB unit from Uptone Audio. It can be found via the Computeraudiophile program as of March 15 or so. It treats the USB in a similar but less elaborate way compared to the SSR mentioned by me above.
Regarding song duplication, i guess you can go about this a few ways
the easiest being in Windows or Mac where you go and arrange the music folder contents by name. The identical one will line up together in a bunch and you use your delete key with abandon
.just be careful that they are true duplicates and not different formats of the same music, ie rbcd/mp3/dsd/iso files/PCM hires at different rates/flac/wav/aiff, etc. Besure of what you want to keep.
For identical albums with diffent names/metadata
.that will be harder to find and sort, and will take real stickitoitivity to get thru. |
It would help with any USB terminal of any Dac. There is a sizable thread about it at ComputerAudiophile forum. Do a search. |
It does not do DSD (a must for me) and as I own a Lampi Big7, I assure you there is no Dac out there that can give me any regrets and I have heard plenty, like the Trinity, EMM Labs, Rowland, CH, TotalDac, Devialet, Metrum, dCS, Zanden, Audio Note, MSB platinum, Diresct Stream, Hugo, etc.
Lampi is a tonality king... |
Many good Dacs out there and I tend to prefer the boutique guys.
The Big 7 is the best of Lampi that I have heard, but I mostly heard the 3 and 4. The 5 and 6 I have only heard briefly. His PS design is superb. Lampi DSD is also unique on the market
and sounds outrageously good. Next wek I will get to hear the Golden Gate Lampi in a killer high end system for an entire day, and can report back on my feelings then.
The Lampis dont sell in the regular commercial model, so the markup is not so high. Its a hybrid semi-direct model.
As fo all those Dacs I heard, well some at home, some at shows, some at Pals homes and some at the HQs of the companies themselves, as I have been fortunate to get invited to personal demos.
All of the high end stuff sounds good, but price/performance relationship has to come into play.
The ones that spak to me of high value per price would be the Dartzeel LHC-208, the Lampizator Big7, and to a somewhat lesser extent the DStream. Now be mindful that the DStream had the original firmware.
I was not a great fan of the Hugo, as I prefer the Qute EX with LPSU.
Never heard Empirical Dac, but I am inclined to think its very good, as Steve is boutique and knows his stuff. |
The Trinity Dac
Ahh yes, I spent a weekend with one a month ago, as well as the Golden Gate Dac in an UBER system.
Thumbs up for both of them... |
JH901, ask ALRainbow. He has 2 Lampi B7s (one is a Headdac) and a MSB Platinum stack and a DS. I think he plans to get a Golden Gate HeadDac in the future
I did read that he said Yale bested Pikes Peak! |
Rick, I have a Big 7 and all that is raved about the Yggy, choke regulation etc is old hat in the lampi. GG is same circuit with extreme parts. All that tweaking you speak of is basically stock in a Lampizator. Lampi is built by a tweaker, dont forget.
The DSD is unmatched in digital playback...go ask Bruce Borwn, or Elberoth...Hahaha
It totally destroyed the Hugo(and my own Qute EX). Until you hear one properly setup, you wont get it. Nevermind, I understand. |
FSmithJack,
I have tasted the audio elixir of the gods.
PC server with win12 AudioOptimizer in core mode, using JRiver to upconvert PCM/DSD to DSD256 feeding properly setup Bughead Emperor as the playback engine....WOW.
Reel to reel quality. Spinners begone! Bughead is magic. |
