Yamamoto YDA 01 DAC

Hi,
Staehli, sorry to hear about your problems with the Metrum. Ironically the upper frequency performance of the DAC is cited as one of it`s strenths in reviews and feedback from nearly all early owners.No etch,edge or brightness(yet very high resolution) per impressions.

Another example of how no component pleases everyone`s ears or works well in all systems. I hope to finally have my re-shipped Metrum Octave very soon and compare for myself.

Staehli I agree that home auditions(with return policy ) is the ideal situation.

Has anyone heard or considered the Acoustic Plan DAC? It is a NOS architecture with separate power supply and discrete tube output stage.

I heard the Acoustic Plan DAC recently and was impressed.

Staehli, you might find this more to your tastes but it costs a bit more than the MA DAC. I sure hope your DAC settles down a bit. Your description is frightening!

Charles,
it is indeed ironic especially since I'm comparing it to a DAC that is said to be on the cold/bright side of neutral... Until now I thought that a DAC is an unlikely source for a system mismatch.

Well, per UPS my Metrum Octave should arrive today. If so I`ll post out of the box impressions and then followup after appropriate burn-in.

Charles1dad,

I have listened to 4 DACs in the last month or so. My favorite one, by far, is an older one a friend gave to me. He helped design it for a company and was given some of them which he modified to his own tastes (got rid of all electrolitics, used some "special" caps, beefed up power supply, etc). It doesn't have all the fancy # of the newer ones, it just sounds better. What is surprising it the low level detail. It's not just that it's better, I hear things that don't even exist in the others.

When I was researching, I read that Gordon Rankin (Wavelength) thinks that the manipulation of the stream up then down loses some low level detail. All I know is what I hear and that is: this older "simpler" DAC, with it's mods, sounds better than the newer ones I tried. I'm happy now and have no interest in trying way more expensive ones.

I will be interested in what you find with the Metrum. I like your system. It should reveal a lot.