2. digital
  3. 1291180077

I have three digital sources

I have a 4 year old Audio Note dac 2.1. I used to think it was a pretty solid piece of gear. Problem was when I bought a Cambridge Audio dacmagic to mostly stream mlb baseball games from my pc. Trouble started brewing when I hooked the dac magic to my Accustic Arts transport and it was every bit as solid a performer or even better than the Audio Note dac.

Then indignities on top of indignity I bought an Oppo 83se as a blueray player and to play sacd, and it clearly is in a different league (as in better) than my Audio Note dac and dacmagic on anything it plays. I run two systems - one computer based and one with the oppo as source. The Audio Note is the odd piece out but have been thinking should I upgrade to 3.1 (I run Audio Note HE speakers that I love in my main system), should I sell up and think about a newer technology dac that will mate with my transport or computer better, or even wondering if I just need to roll some new tubes into the 2.1 (I still have all original tubes). Just looking for a little discussion about where to take my digital sources.
ladavid

Showing 6 responses by ladavid

ladavid OP
79 posts
 
thanks for the responses.

Paul - yours is most interesting to me. Actually did a comparison tonight using both Macbook with M2tech hiface and Accustic Arts as transports and it wasn't subtle that the Oppo se was better. So question is what is wrong with my Audio Note dac if it is different in yours system. Maybe tubes, maybe my ears, not cables as used the same to compare - a headscratcher that I need to figure out.
ladavid OP
79 posts
 
thanks Paul - very eclectic music tastes - Classical - been reading book Cello Suites so have been listening to a couple versions of this lately, some folk - lots of Greg Brown of late, jazz - 50's Monk to Jason Moran, and yes some hard rock - been enjoying the new Black Mountain of late. All of it sounds pretty average on my Audio Note dac. As noted above some is cd and some is from hard drive (some even itunes downloads).
ladavid OP
79 posts
 
I may well be legally deaf - certainly something going on when a 3k dac and 4k transport aren't in same league as $800 blueray player.

My other gear is decent - a 300b amp and Lamm preamp. My dac is a 2.1 kit and wondering if something is not quite right with it but there was a time when it was blowing away my other sources. One of my thoughts is to see if I can get it upgraded to 3.1 dac. Going to spend some time doing serious listening with it this weekend. The Oppo is way ahead right now on both detail and dynamics - there is meat on the bones and less so with the AN / AA combo. Maybe I have become easily seduced by detail and dynamics and am missing the truthful timbre. My father in law was a horn player so will have to pull out his favourites Miles, Dizzy and some Roy Hargrove.
ladavid OP
79 posts
 
Okay - pretty embarrassed to write about this one. Had a new set of 6922's around so opened up the dac this morning to replace my older pair and found I had a set of herbie's (I love your products most of the time) tube dampers on the 6922's. Popped in the new tubes, left the dampers off and bingo dynamics, detail, and tone galore. Will let the new tubes burn in a bit but right out of the box a big improvement - don't think it was the tubes, more likely the dampers just weren't the right thing for my dac - like the cotton is out of ears! Paul thanks for all your good feedback - think problem is solved.

David
ladavid OP
79 posts
 
I knew this was the problem right away - has been a couple of years at least since I opened up the dac and timing is perfect for me being generally unhappy with it. Happened to me before with an amp where the dampers did just that - yes they got rid of the micro-phonics but they also damped the life out of the amp. Going to let the new tubes break in a bit but will do some comparisons with both new and old tubes next weekend. I have the dac in my second system right now with accuphase amp and Ellis Audio speakers and sound is now full figured and quiet compared to the dacmagic.
ladavid OP
79 posts
 
judging by how close it comes to my Audio Note dac and Accustic Arts transport the Oppo se is really good. I actually was surprised there wasn't more discussion about how good the se is in this thread.

That said, I think it is the weak link in my system - may start a thread about how good a cd / sacd player you have to buy to significantly hear an upgrade from the oppo.
More to discover