Is it fair to say that the DAC that can handle Redbook and SACD like EMM, dCS, and Esoteric don't handle Redbook as well as those DAC committed to Redbook? |
I would like to revice this thread, that among the best threads I've read over the past few years. With digital changing so rapidly, I'd like to hear what experiences the group has had since the last post in September 08. My goal is to have the very best Redbook replay, I don't care about hirez or SACD, but if the best DAC happens to do those as well, so be it. Still using my trusty AA Dac MkIV. |
The Berekely Alpha obviously has a lot of press buzz, and given the folks behind it, I assume it is more than just another flavor-of-the month product. Has anyone been able to compare this $5,000 player with top gear from EMM, dCS, Esoteric, Accustic Arts... |
This thread some very experienced listeners and some owners of some of the finest DAC made, I wonder as DAC evolved and we move forward do you see music servers in your immediate future? Is USB connection essential to your next DAC purchase. I feel I am sticking with what I have for a long while (a CD player) as it seems the computer-based future has a long way to go before it is ready for prime time. |
Karl and Teajay, I do wonder about this issue of warmth, which I suspect is somewhat attenuated or enhanced by system context, I wonder if a tube dac in an all tube pre/amp combo is too much of "something" versus an SS based system. I've always thought of "warmth" as a pleasant deviation from neutral, with somehow less resolution and detail -- I think that for me, with two tube-based pre/amp combos, that neutrality at the source proabably serves me best, whereas if I were using SS, yes, even Pass gear, something on the warm/organic side might match better. Which as Teajay says, system matching and context is an important part of assessing a piece of gear; change the context and your conclusions may vary. |
Hi Teajay. Of course I did not ever hear the TubeDac, so I have no idea if I would have liked it better than the DAC IV or how it might compare to the EMM CDSA SE (current version with upgraded transport and feet). Like the AA gear, I bought it essentially without an audition, but did hear it for a while in a similar system to my own with Merlin speakers. I liked what I heard and was of a mind to move from seperates back to an integrated CD player (the SACD was just added value, though I as of yet don't own a single SACD, but for the demo SACD provided with the EMM).
First I will say that just about any of the DACs and digital gear mentioned in this thread would undoubtedly sound good to me; this is afterall all good/great gear. My reason for going integrated is that I own two preamps and I could not get them both on my equipment rack with the transport/dac combo; so the change was ergonomic and not for thinking I was going to improve the sound much, I was very satisfied with the AA combo, no doubt. I'll say this for the CDSA SE, it in no way makes me feel like I have taken a step backwards and in a few specific regards it betters the AA to my ears and in the context of an all tube preamp/amp combo (Joule, Atmasphere, Music Reference). I listen to a lot of jazz and the sound of a trumpet and saxaphone is what I usually fixate on; when I come from a live concert, it is usually the fall of in the timbre of these two instruments that makes me really feel the difference between live and recorded (and dynamics); the EMM gear seems to handle these two instruments in a way I prefer over the AA combo. The simplest way I can say it is that it is much easier to hear that these instruments are metallic, and I can more easily hear the blattiness (I think that was HPs word for what I am referring to) of the trumpet and the bite of the saxaphone come across in a more realistic manner to my ears. I also notice that the cymbals, and percussive instruments seems to have a more incisive portrayl of their dynamics, with fast and detailed transients, making them sound more like real instruments.
That is all I have been able to focus on so far listening to Mingus, Tijuana Moods and Blakey's Moanin'. That being said, there was nothing wrong with the AA at all, but I think one can safely purchase the CDSA as an alternative to the combos and feel they have first-rate digital production. Let's put it this way, it is more than good enough that I'm not worrying about it. I'm afraid to actually start buying SACDs as this is suppose to be the EMM gears raison d'etre and I can see myself buying all my favorite jazz cds all over again. Ugghhh.
Anyway, this is a thread on DACs so that's all I'll say on this player. It does beg the issue in my mind whether the advantage of seperate DACs is mostly flexibilty and the "advantage" of separate power supplies between transport and DAC, versus the thorny issue of jitter connecting them. Anyway, I'm happy (for now). |
Teajay, I am not sure if you mentioned it earlier, but have you had a chance to hear the BDAC? I was that close to getting one before I went for the EMM single-box, but the BDAC does seem to be getting many good comments, and hard drive connectivity does seem like a possibility down the road. I know you hear a lot of great gear, has this one crossed your path? |
Just to avoid confusion, I do mean the Berkeley DAC. |
Terry, the AA Tube DAC has been in your system quite a while, it must be something very special since I suspect you have been trying to find something to take that "next step" and the AA has held up against som tough competition. Seeing how your system has evolved, I would think you have it totally dialed in, in that fantastic room. |
Do you believe the move to computer-based storage is being caused by real improvements in sound quality, as an improved "transport" vehicle, or simply convenience? I'm not sure I wold go through the trouble of loading my 3,000 on to a hard drive of some kind, unless it was sonic step forward, I don't find it that inconvenient to pull out a CD and putting it in my player. |
My sense of this is that there was a lot of hoopla over computer storage as an approach (regarding sound quality)pumped up by the reviewers to some extent - a whole new product category, but my hunch (no knowledge) is that it still hard to beat a CD with a high quality transport feeding a high quality DAC. I feel there has been some back tracking on the original claims of superiority over the transport approach - there seems to be a lot of variables of hardware and software and connection types and at this point I just find it all too confusing. |
That sounds like a plan.... |
