Pro-ject happens to make good stuff. When my phono preamp was being repaired, I bought a $129 Pro-ject phono preamp from Amazon and it was not horrible. There are several issues IMO. There is the break-in issue. I don’t judge anything before 30 days, although I find differences seem to show up in 2 weeks or so. Second is, depending on what you value musically, the Pro-ject may be giving you what you need. In my experience, the better digital gives you a more realistic presentation of acoustic instruments and a better sense of space. Just sounds more "real". This may not mean anything for you. I also agree that cables make a difference, but the Blue Jeans are good enough that you should be able to judge. Right now, my advice is to calm down and give things time to settle in and adjust your ears to the new sound. This is all a product of the "new and improved" way of buying audio components through the internet and not by listening and comparing at the dealer. The world has changed and we have to accept that if we are going to buy audio through our imaginary impression of whether we will like it, sometimes we will be wrong. I have bought unheard as well, but always with a return privilege.
Denefrips Pontus "burn in" period?
Hello all
Now there's a chance I may be a little premature with this, but I've received my Pontus 8 days ago and have had it running ever since, powered up, most of the time with signal going through it, and so far I'm a little concerned. I am aware that with this particular dac it is recommended to run it roughly 10 days before it really burns in, but being only a couple of days away, I can't say the sound has changed very noticeably. Matter of fact, when I A/B with my project S2 plus dac, and even my blue sound node internal deck, I can barely tell a difference! Does burning happen gradually? Is there all of a sudden a hallelujah moment where this thing starts kicking ass? Does anybody have more experience with this particular piece of gear? Current system is rogue audio ST100 amp, rogadio RP1 preamp, upgraded tubes, blue jean cabling, upgraded power cords on power amp and preamp. I had high hopes that this dac that has received so much high praise was going to blow my meager dacs out of the water, and so far not the case at all. I must say, the thing weighs a ton and looks gorgeous, but I'm getting a little concerned at this point that I may end up disappointed. Talk me off the ledge!