audioengr
Responses from audioengr
| Absolute top tier DAC for standard res Redbook CD Guido - the Final Drive is only for analog outputs, not AES/EBU or S/PDIF inputs.Steve N.Empirical Audio | |
| Absolute top tier DAC for standard res Redbook CD " I know Steve Nugent made the comment that Rowland has a darker tinge to it"Actually, I was talking about Mark Levinson. I have had Rowland, ML and Pass Labs preamps in the house. None of them lit my fire. Like most components, I needed to mod th... | |
| Absolute top tier DAC for standard res Redbook CD "Steve (Empirical Audio), is it safe to say your Final Drive is virtually a Music First or Bent TAP-X without a volume control?"Essentially yes, except for the transformer quality. I have an all-silver Music First and the FD beats it hands-down. T... | |
| Absolute top tier DAC for standard res Redbook CD Time to try direct to amps with all of the DACs. How about this weekend?Have you tried the Final Drive yet with the preamp?BTW, here is what I would recommend for room treatments:1) to eliminate HF sidewall reflections, put Sonex panels, 3'X5' on ... | |
| Absolute top tier DAC for standard res Redbook CD Just to give you an idea, the latest Overdrive upgrade, my ground-plane mod is $200. This one takes the USB module performance to a new level, passing up the external Off-Ramp 5 with Dynamo power supply.The last upgrade was the digital D/A Hynes r... | |
| Absolute top tier DAC for standard res Redbook CD Granny - I learned this lesson from modding Mark Levinson gear, which is very dark sounding. I jumpered most of the long traces with silver wire and it opened up and became airy. No darkness. I don't mod anymore, but I learned a lot from 10 years ... | |
| Absolute top tier DAC for standard res Redbook CD "Aeris is powered by two separate low noise, passive power factor corrected, switch mode power supplies (SMPS) – one for analog and one for digital."Actually, the Overdrive SE uses three SMPS, one for digital and two for analog. Each has a Hynes-t... | |
| Absolute top tier DAC for standard res Redbook CD "What you really needed to do was change out the rectifier."This is good advise, but I'll give you even better advise:Power all of your digital gear from a Plasmatron 3 from VHAudio.com:http://www.vhaudio.com/plasmatron.htmlAll of the show exhibit... | |
| Absolute top tier DAC for standard res Redbook CD Wisnon wrote "DallasJustice had the Empirical Dac with all the trimmings and abandoned it for a TotalDac with Legato 16/44 transport and I think moved on to TotalDac Server and USB converter."That is true, but realize that this was the original Ov... | |
| Absolute top tier DAC for standard res Redbook CD TBG - my room partner and I used my Overdrive in one system and the BMC in another system in or RMAF room last year. BMC is good at that price point, but not in the same league.Steve N.Empirical Audio | |
| DAC significantly better than a w4s DAC2-DSDse? Alex - Reading your response again, I'm not sure you understand. I am not controlling Vcc. I am controlling Vref.Steve N.Empirical Audio | |
| DAC significantly better than a w4s DAC2-DSDse? "anything 0.5V below Vcc results in rather compromised DAC chip specifications."Alex - That depends entirely on the D/A and the supporting circuitry. You are correct that most D/A chips will not do this. I don't have this problem. The A/Bs have be... | |
| DAC significantly better than a w4s DAC2-DSDse? "Re: no pre-amp. Steve N: How do you handle volume control? Do you throw away bits to lower volume or do you attenuate the analog signal? "Neither. I adjust the D/A reference voltage. This is what is multiplied times the data words to achieve the ... | |
| DAC significantly better than a w4s DAC2-DSDse? I heard lots of DSD at the Newport Beach show last week. We compared the same track, 44.1 PCM versus DSD. Namely track 1 from Kind of Blue. Sorry, but my PCM beat it.My comment was specifically about my volume control technology. Beats 99% of prea... | |
| DAC significantly better than a w4s DAC2-DSDse? http://www.audiostream.com/content/empirical-audio-overdrive-se-usb-dacpreYou will sell your preamp with this DAC. It beats it. |