Joaco, I answered that question in my last reply (just look up a few posts). The answer is that I did not.
|
Any other reviews of the EE DAC? Anyone? Steidlguitars, did you try it with you Cary as a transport? |
Steidlguitars, have you tried your Cary 303/300 as a transport for the EE? |
My reason for asking is that when I compared my CD transport to my Logitech networked source through the EE DAC, the CDP clearly produced superior sound (to my ear). |
Good question. Remarkably, I am sorry to say, I never compared them. My pathetic excuse is that at the time I was swapping amps and preamps and sources and cables and... oh my.
If I ever have them together in the same rig again, I'll be sure to do that. |
Bob, How does the Cary 303/300 sound as a transport to the EE DAC as compared to Touch? |
I too own the EE DAC and I think NJS describes it pretty well. It's nicely made and its presentation is detailed and dynamic; it responds pretty well to tube rolling too.
The other day I compared it to the Cary Xciter DAC, and these are different animals. In my set up, the midrange and upper midrange of the Cary is fleshier, which makes the EE seem a bit recessed in the mids--of course, I am not sure I would have said that before the A/B. The EE is more detailed and "faster" sounding.
I like them both, they're just different.
I am feeding these FLAC files fed by a Logitech Touch. Neither the Touch/EE nor the Touch/Cary sound as good to me as my Cary 303/300 CD player, but they're not too far off.
Bob |
Paulsax... I agree with you on the relative value of specs, but were you to compare a device with say 129dB of dynamic range to one <100 dB, the result would be most startlingly apparent, all other things being equal, of course. |
Im sure this is a fine product but the is not one of us who can hear a range of 129db, likely not even half of it.
specs are nice but dont get hung up on the them. |
The EE is spec'd at 129dB of Dynamic Range and listening clearly seems to indicate this is correct. Most dynamic DAC ever to grace my rack. |
You´re right, Njs, about the 90/95 figures, they´re signal to noise ratio. But the 129dB dynamic range, are you sure it´s the DAC´s and not the Sabre´s chip? The EE DAC has a 129dB dynamic range? |
Joaco, the 90/95dB figures that you refer to are the signal to noise ratio, not the dynamic range, so nothing is "lost" between the DAC and the outputs.
I keep the volume control set to maximum and will eventually consider bypassing it as I'm very happy letting a Wyred4Sound STP-SE preamp handle it. |
Njs, the 129dB dynamic range is of the Sabre chip alone. Very impressive! But the EE dynamic ranges are 90dB through the tube output and 95dB through the solid state output. So over 30dB are lost between the DAC chip and the outputs!
Which other DACs did you use before this one?
How do you find its volume control? Do you use a preamp after the DAC? |
I've had the pleasure to own the EE DAC for the last seven weeks and find it to be an exceptional piece. Most impressive are its dynamics. The specs claim a dynamic range of 129dB and listening certainly bears this out.
The backplane is flexible and includes BNC, AES and USB along with the traditional coax and SPDIF inputs. Opamps are socketed should you choose to roll in different ones. It has a true tube output stage, not just a buffer, that can be toggled in or out. I prefer the solid state to the tube option but its nice to have a choice.
The box is substantial with solid heft when picked up and is attractive on the rack.
Highly recommended |
I´ll also appreciate comments! |
