really good question.....digital is in a really unique place right now....all in one units sound great, dacs with usb/firewire input, transports are challenged by computer hard drive based music server... i would speculate there has been a overall major improvement with jitter reduction the last couple years across the board..
have a couple questions....
1. have you tried the dac & transport with the aq hawk ?
2. what power cords are you using on the lens, dac, and transport ?
i would have to agree with everyone above.. you have a couple diferent options..try a different dac and maybe transport or a all in one(etc..ayre), different cable.
btw, the electrocompinet dac is a absolute steal for $1700 new and $1100 used, it is really a breakthrough digital product, it took a audio aero prima dac II (3x the cost) to better it..
the genesis lens is a fascinating device... i was really tempted to try one but to do so runs about $1200-$1500 (used lens, extra digital cable, power cable, and isolation). though i havent tried one, i would think you would have to use a identical digital cable.. i think (speculation again) the genesis is better with older 16 bit transports (it adds 2 extra bits extending it to 18 bits).. i would be interesting to hear the genesis with a current transport (and compare againest dcs purcell or gw labs upsampler)
in looking at it, you could experiment with what sounds best either a different dac and/or transport, cable, player... it just comes down to finding out what is local (auditioning dacs, transports, and digital cables is really hard if not impossible, you pretty much have to buy blind and try....all in one players are much easier to audition...
are there any other local audiphiles or shops who can help out ?
have a couple questions....
1. have you tried the dac & transport with the aq hawk ?
2. what power cords are you using on the lens, dac, and transport ?
i would have to agree with everyone above.. you have a couple diferent options..try a different dac and maybe transport or a all in one(etc..ayre), different cable.
btw, the electrocompinet dac is a absolute steal for $1700 new and $1100 used, it is really a breakthrough digital product, it took a audio aero prima dac II (3x the cost) to better it..
the genesis lens is a fascinating device... i was really tempted to try one but to do so runs about $1200-$1500 (used lens, extra digital cable, power cable, and isolation). though i havent tried one, i would think you would have to use a identical digital cable.. i think (speculation again) the genesis is better with older 16 bit transports (it adds 2 extra bits extending it to 18 bits).. i would be interesting to hear the genesis with a current transport (and compare againest dcs purcell or gw labs upsampler)
in looking at it, you could experiment with what sounds best either a different dac and/or transport, cable, player... it just comes down to finding out what is local (auditioning dacs, transports, and digital cables is really hard if not impossible, you pretty much have to buy blind and try....all in one players are much easier to audition...
are there any other local audiphiles or shops who can help out ?