Not surprised. Good to know about Delta PC. It’s on my list to try on DAC.
DAC vs PC vs Source
What a weekend of comparisons in my system.
Mc DAC vs Weiss; three Shunyata PCs (on loan from the Cable Company) to PowerPlant; and Roon vs Aurender.
Electronics: Mc 601; Mc 2300; PSA PP 15. Speakers SF Olympica III.
Big surprise (for me); Power cord had a huge impact (positive) on SQ. Truly a night and day difference between Shunyata Venom and Delta/Alpha (smaller differences between Delta and Alpha). Bigger soundstage, clarity, dynamics. Same difference across DACs. Delta winner (Alpha a bit better but not sure it’s worth the extra $$).
Mc vs Weiss DAC: Mc bigger soundstage and more dynamics BUT sharper treble and more glare. Weiss much more organic and lots of adjustments; winner Weiss.
Roon vs Aurender: Roon (first time for me) much better interface. SQ, with Roon running on an old Mac (not ideal), not a huge difference but Aurender had greater clarity. Winner Roon for usability.
For tonight winning combo: Delta PC, Weiss, and Roon. PC had the biggest impact on SQ.
5 responses Add your response
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I hope that you are using Shunyata NR power cables. These cables combined with an Everest 8000 made a dramatic difference for my system. I have Sigma to Everest and Sigma NR to 300 watt/channel integrated. Venom NR to subs, which only cover lowest octave. About to try Sigma NR upgrade from Alpha NR on phono stage, DAC and Aurender N20. Roon has a better UI and I was running a 10th gen i7 NUC with Roon Core, but went with the Aurender N20. I’m waiting for Shunyata Sigma Ethernet and AES/EBU cables. Let me know if you want to upgrade Roon Core. I’ve heard great things about the Weiss. I found the Holo May DTE to be more musical than my MA12000. It seems that you have made some good moves. Perhaps, Roon vs Aurender is more complicated on the musicality side of things and the devil is in the details, but Roon does have the better UI. I just moved to Conductor and it is better than I first thought. I believe that it would take a serious level of funding and great care in selecting components to rival what the N20 has…out of the box. |
Thanks for taking the time to share your recent listening/comparative results. I’m not surprised that the power cables had such a noticeable impact on your audio system’s sound quality. I’ve been privy to enough of these scenarios over the years and have come to realize their sonic influence. When I read comments on this and other forums by listeners who say power cables make little or no difference, I just have to disagree. I do not know the make up of their audio systems or listening environment. But the inability to hear a difference between power cables (Of various quality levels) seems out of the ordinary. In my experiences, they are easily distinguishable. Charles |
@charles1dad +1 on power cables being easy to distinguish |