Hello Recluse,
My Mola Mola Tambaqui has remote balance through their app. Sometimes I sit off center and find it useful! Ken
My Mola Mola Tambaqui has remote balance through their app. Sometimes I sit off center and find it useful! Ken
What DAC upgrade made you say “DAMN, that sounds SO MUCH better than my last DAC”?
As the title suggests, what was your overall system and DAC at the point where you bought only a new DAC and said “DAMN, that sounds SO MUCH better than my last DAC”?
I’m a novice and so many people talk about improvements from new equipment as if they were only listening to varying degrees of static until they bought more and more new equipment which added up to them finally being presented with music. It’s like Salome and the seven veils. But when does the last veil get peeled away?
So what system did you have and what DAC did you swap in that made you say “DAMN!!!!”?
I guess I’m looking for night and day differences, not gradual progressions……
I’m a novice and so many people talk about improvements from new equipment as if they were only listening to varying degrees of static until they bought more and more new equipment which added up to them finally being presented with music. It’s like Salome and the seven veils. But when does the last veil get peeled away?
So what system did you have and what DAC did you swap in that made you say “DAMN!!!!”?
I guess I’m looking for night and day differences, not gradual progressions……
154 responses Add your response
Had a Kora Hermes tubed dac since 2001. Still do. And love the sound it produces. As a believer in power supply overkill and unique tubed analogue output stages in superior sound it hit the right ballance. It has two decent torroidal transformers one big one for the analogue stage and a smaller one for the digital stage also has a 2 volt and 5volt switch on back to help it fit in with a vast array of preamps. I now have a Lampizator Lite 7 with pcm 356 and dsd 256. I may upgrade it to big 7 mk2 status. Imo these dacs leave behind everything in reference sound. I could never buy a dac without tubes and certain aspects as many of these players, they are all cut from the same cloth imo. When I got my Kora Hermes theyre were very few dacs available. A few names I remember were MSB, Meitner, Metronome, and to a lesser " also ran extent" Theta, and possibly a few others. But not like today where everyone has a flavor of the month! |
For me, I went from a Chord Hugo Mk 1, to a Chord Qutest. After 3-4 months I replaced the Qutest with a Denafrips Venus II with a Denafrips Gaia (D to D Converter) using
I²S. My system is headphone only, my main amp is an upgraded Woo Audio WA5-LE Mk 1. At the time I purchased the Denafrips (6 months ago), I replaced all cables that were not already Supra, with Supra Cables, mains cables terminated in Furutech AU connectors. I have many, many tubes for the WA5-LE (at least 8 pairs each, of high quality, rectifiers, drivers and 300-B's). Headphones are Sennheiser HD600, HD650, HD800S, Focal Elears, Audeze LCD-X's and Meze Empyreans. The Qutest was very good, but the Denafrips made everything disappear, it just leaves the music! My only regret is that maybe I should have gone for the Denafrips Terminator-Plus, but I'll never know since I can't audition it! |
Audio Mirror Tubadour III SE I saw a very clear and substantial improvement, all other things in my system being equal. Later I bought a PS Audio DirectStream Sr. DAC, it wasn’t as bright an improvement but it is clearly a better sounding DAC - in my system.I heard the antiquated Philips TDA1540 chip with the Tube Output. It didn't rock my world when I heard it at my friends place. We did a head to head with my PS Audio DSSr. Tubadour III SE sounded thinner by comparison. |
It’s been fun reading all of the posts as I just finished up a many month DAC hunt. I tried dCS (Bartok and Rossini, both with and without the Rossini Clock), Brinkmann Nyquist Mk II, Nagra Classic, and Berkeley Audio Design (do not remember which one), but the only DAC that got me excited moving up from my Bluesound Node 2i was the MSB Premier with Powerbase, v2 renderer, and femto 93 clock. The timbre I’m hearing now is exceptionally natural and the imaging is very 3D. I’m not going anywhere DAC wise until I can afford a Reference. The other DACs were all very nice, with the Nyquist Mk II my second favorite overall, but the Premier really stood separate from the rest. Now, my Shunyata Everest/Omega XC combo and everything else in my system certainly helps the sound, so maybe the overall combination is really what made me go “wow.” I’m getting a very compelling musical experience every time I sit down to listen, day or night. Happy listening! |
While staying with the same dac (project dac box s2+) I did upgrades,,, My “DAMN, that sounds SO MUCH better...” upgrades are: 1) Change to the new ifi Elite power supply 2) Change of optical cable to the Supernova 7 Mini Toslink Optical I was stunned that changing the optical cable made a huge difference in sound quality. Thank you thecableco.com for their loaner program where I could try out optical cable change and insisting I do so when I couldn’t fathom that an optical cable would make a difference! I am a long time analogue audiophile that has "dipped my toe" in digital many times over the years and retracted with horror. Pleased that in the last few years digital can now provide an enjoyable listening experience at surprisingly affordable prices! But there are plenty of (too many) bad digital transfers of old recordings and many not great new ones so my analogue rig is not going anywhere where pure analogue still is more enjoyable. Looking fwd to my next DAC upgrade into $1K+ territory..... |
Previous system:
Convert-2 by Dangerous Music. The increase in sonic detail is breathtaking.
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I thought I needed to upgrade my Audio Alchemy DDP-1 (DAC/PRE) + PS 5, outboard power supply, but didn't see a better quality dac/pre anywhere near my budget, so...... I decided to replace my optical cable with a Pangea coax XL digital cable. Im pretty sure no matter what dac/pre I would have replaced the AA with, if I still used optical, I would have wasted my money |
I am currently looking for another Dac. I like my RME ADI2 Dac Fs with Teddy Pardo PS but I want to try a r2r. I have been very interested in the Audio GD 7 latest model. Good reviews class A power and the price is not overwhelming. Any one else have any info on it? Only place to get is Underwood Wally and no return. Just wondering if it will be dynamic like the RME. I've tried thePSA DS and Audio Mirror and SW1X. Found them too laid back and lacking in bass. I have subs and Triton Reference speakers so I can always dial in a little more. |
Adding and clocking a Denafrips Iris DDC for I2S input to the Terminator Plus was a near Damn moment compared to the straight USB from an Innuos Statement. What was a Damn moment was when Innuos released their InnuOS 2.0 and I was able to dump Roon. InnuOS 2.0 just makes noise vanish. While Tidal is still nowhere close to the quality of local files and InnuOS 2.0 doesn't support HiRez from Tidal yet, Tidal sounds so much better. The fatigue factor is 90 % decreased because the background noise is so much less. The presentation is more dynamic and more relaxed at the same time. More so with local files but Tidal actually benefits more relatively because it was so much worse to start with. InnuOS 2.0 further reveals and widens the gap between Redbook and HiRez. It also reveals and widens the gap between HiRez PCM and DSD. DSD has more detail and richness with better pace and timing. Its more immersive. With Roon I always felt DSD sounded wrong but it was just the distortion and noise Roon was adding that made is sound off. |
For the OP, no one has mentioned the front end, as a matter of fact yes, some have reported changing the server made most of the impact and I believe what they are experiencing I have tried a project S2, rme adi-2, Denafrips terminator, holo may, all these dacs with a front end up sampler running HQPlayer The biggest change in my system have been hqplayer, not the actual dac, good dacs will have differences with others but if your front end is crappy and noisy there is where a dac will excel over another and there will be wider differences between them, when the front end is good the Dac gap narrows Maybe not what you or others want to hear but it is my experience. |
Hqplayer is an app that runs on a PC, can be under windows or Linux in headless mode. It is not a streamer you can say it transports the audio but conceptually I see it differently. When you send audio to a dac the Dac uses internal upsampling and digital to digital and digital to analog reconstruction filters for the entire digital to analog conversion. Obviously the Dac executes this conversion with simple mathematical operations and IIR and/or FIR filters. If instead of sending audio to the Dac you send it to a computer first to be pre processed by a high speed Intel or AMD processor with more complex filters and operations doing the heavy lifting of conversion and passing near perfect digital audio afterwards to the Dac for final conversion the results in my opinion and others are outstanding. So it does digital to digital conversion passing the result in DSD or PCM format to the Dac. I don’t like this analogy but If you are familiar with Chord it does kind of the function of the Mscaler. I have friends that conceptually never even tried it because they say it add colorations, I have other friends that will never go back to a system without using it. This is another bad analogy but kind of valid, a cheap dac is simple an expensive dac will have more parts and components and software developed by the Dac designer to make the digital to digital conversion more accurate and sophisticated, typically the expensive dac sounds more refined, lowered noise floor and such this is what hqplayer does I hope this helps Edit, hqplayer has an internal basic player for local content which is very basic. It is also integrated in Roon so you can stream from roon to hqplayer directly qobuz or tidal or roon's library local content too. The pc holding hqplayer you connect via USB to the Dac or you send the audio via the network to a renderer pc, raspberry or what have you connected to the Dac |
In the mid 2000’s, I auditioned the Musical Fidelity Trivista 21 DAC. That was an audible wow. I kept that DAC for 15 years. Traded it in for a Lumin D2 so I could play hi Rez streamed audio, and I kept it for two years. Demoed a Lumin T2 and within minutes it was “wow”. Shortest demo I’ve ever done, the T2 was so clearly superior to my D2 with LPS. I still prefer vinyl but on hi Rez songs, the difference is closer. |
@rsf507 M12 is only worth it if you have Bricasti amps. Its built-in that is not bypassable pre did not match well with other amps I tried. If you are set on Bricasti please get the M21 instead. At that level a separate pre is a must. The Nagra tube DAC is something different, everything I was wanting in my system suddenly was there, and I am no longer scouring audio sites for my next purchase. There was soul and there was resolution, violins for the first time sounded just right. Is it worth 2X the price? Yes, because your search for a DAC ends. Tube DACs are where it's at, IMO. But do try cheaper ones like Brinkmann Nyquist dac before jumping to the Nagra. I didn't do that, but should have, it's the only regret I have. Also please note, Nagra doesn't sound tubey at all, you wouldn't know there were tubes if it weren't for the name. |
Without a doubt the Bricasti M3 dac with streamer board option is a incredible price ,performance leader . I had a Denafrips Venus and was going to go with a Terminator ,or a Holo springs Kte but Anthony at Perrotta Consultants ,on theEast coast IMO a premiere dealer with a great assortment of great gear said these other Chinese dacs are very good But Bricasti are known for their musicality in the mastering studios but expensive.this M3 Uses the classic Analog Devises 1955 laser trimmed Multibit dac chips , and tons of trickle down technologies, fantastic build quality and execution and the streamer is seamless and Roon ready ,and best of 2020 it truly delivers excellent detail and realism,it sounds like a mixture of tubes and solid state and if you buy a cable or power cord ,very attractive package pricing . https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pG1TGrVEpOc |
Each step in my audio journey has seemed to be a great improvement...from my Marantz receiver to a Wyred for Sound DAC, then to a BMC DAC/Pre, then to my current Bricasti M1 Limited Gold. Helping along the way were changes in the source as well. From a Marantz CD player, to a BMC BDCD, to a Laufer Teknik Memory Player (first a 16 core, then a 32 core, and having a 64 core built currently). |
I think you have to be aware that some DACs could give you that WOW upgrade based on the fact they may have better re-clockers compensating for a budget-ish transport (assuming that is the case in some circumstances). If you already have a fantastic transport the differences in some DACs is less to do with re-clocking and more focused on the DAC engineering itself. An example perhaps would be the Audio Note DACs - Audio Notes shun complexity expecting your Transport to be up to scratch - an AN DAC improves significantly with the right transport on the shelf. But if you put an AN DAC on the end of a lesser transport - you are not getting the best out of it. |
My uncle works in digital mastering studios around the world and he spoke very highly of Bricasti being the best he has encountered ,not just in accuracy but in but as a whole in separating each instrument and bringing out the best in tonal shadings and even variances in pitch to hear as a whole it was just on another level ,that was the Bricasti M1-SE that being said he said their new M3 with streamer card is not far behind at1/2 the cost he was spot on . I bought it with a trade in with on audition from Perrotta consultants on the east coast very fair pricing and nice package deal with cables . After having heard Denafrips terminator side by side and Audiobytes with separate power supply they were very good But just did not present this level of realism especially after the long burnin around400 hours, and filter put in minimum mode.at $6500 with streamer card Roon ready a true high end bargain ,and built superb all CNC ,and fully balanced and use in dual mono mode using the classic AD 1955 Multibit dac chips their-separate patented 1bit DSD ,and true Analog preamplifier which is exceptional if you want to run direct to amp, or just set to -0 to fully bypass great engineering 👍 |
Hi All, I was using both a Theta ProBasic III and a Soekris 1421. I purchased a used Mojo Audio Mystique V3 on Audiogon and, after six weeks listening to it, decided it is simply superior. Better depth of soundstage, more detail without any harshness, deeper bass, and a better weight to the sound. It has woken up my Thiel CS5i's. The Mystique is so much better that I convinced myself to put in an order with Ben for a Mystique EVO B4B. This from a person who almost exclusively purchases used gear.... Thanks for listening, Dsper |
@dsper I was using both a Theta ProBasic III and a Soekris 1421. I purchased a used Mojo Audio Mystique V3 on Audiogon and, after six weeks listening to it, decided it is simply superior. Better depth of soundstage, more detail without any harshness, deeper bass, and a better weight to the sound. just so i am properly following you, you compared a $5500/7500 mojo mystique v3 (rca/xlr) to a $875 soekris 1421 and were wow’ed by the sq delta... declaring confidently that a is better than b... (i have the soekris in a second system, it is a sweet little r2r nos dac, with pre volume adjust and headphone capability too) am i missing something here? |
