Now that my feet are wet....


I've taken my Centrance DACmini and ran it over to my main rig using my iMac as source, plain old iTunes, via a 16' Belkin USB cable.

The sound is glorious, to say the least. What was lean but tuneful bass now hits like a hammer with micro dynamics to die for. Better balance as well.

Case in point: there is slight pause early on in Elinor Frey's playing of Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major and I can hear the decay (or is it reverb) in the body of her cello! I know it is not a room echo as it's there already. There is just more info. Really clean info.

From what I've read I shouldn't be getting this level of improvement without add ons like Pure Music and expensive USB cables, so can anyone tell me why?
Is it the DACmini all on its own?
nonoise

Showing 1 response by mceljo

In audio everything is relative, but you also have to understand that a lot of people suffer from placebo effects and will believe in anything. In addition, a lot of audio tweeks that can work may require a system that's much better than what you have to really hear the difference. This doesn't mean that your system isn't good enough, it just means you don't have to spend your life chasing a unicorn.

Anything related to digital, including USB cables, is much less likely to make a significant improvement compared to analog components.

On Friday I visited my local hi fi store because they were showing off clear audio turntable. The system was clear audio, aesthetix amplification, Focal Stella ($90k) speaker with dual JL Audio Gothom ($12k ea) subwoofers. This is a very nice system. When they switched from the turntable to a laptop connected to the DAC via USB the sound was amazing. I didn't look super close, but I don't think it was a super fancy cable as that wasn't at all the point of the event. A system like this will have significant changes from things that a system like mine never will.

If you're happy, stay happy and don't look for reasons to be unhappy!