jp11801

while I am mac biased for home entertainment even a new mini 599, duet 500 750gb hard drive 250 is 1350 and I think this beats any 1350 cdp I have heard

now all I need is a DIYer to make me up a high end breakout cable

Ok so I spoiled the entire review/impressions thing with the title but I am just that enthusiastic about this new piece of gear from apogee http://www.apogeedigital.com/products/duet.php The unit itself is designed for the recording musician on the go. The unit is powered by the firewire port and that port also serves as the digital in as well. There are NO other digital inputs on this unit and it is designed for Mac users only. The analog ins and outs are acessed by a breakout cable. The analog outs are 1/4 mono females and are meant to be hooked up to powered monitors for audio playback of tracks you have recorded or to monitor recordings as they happen. There is also a 1/4 stereo headphone jack that produces pleasant but not outstanding sound. I hooked this up to my system with a little ghetto magic from Radio Shack, I purchased cheapie 1/4 mono to rca adaptors from them and then was able to use my regular rca. This unit does not provide balanced outputs. After a quick download of the software from the apogee site I was up and running. Right from the first note this bar is a kick ass winner. The unit throws a wide soundstage actually wider than my current favorite the Wavelenght Cosecant. Images are incredibly detailed and have extremely defined placement on the stage. Bass is deep and tight and kept suprising me over and over again while I listened to this dac. Now I did switch to a poorly recorded/mastered track Jump (Van Halen) from the hits cd and yes the sibilance and bright highs are oh so present but switch to a good recording Eric Clapton unplugged or Kind of Blue and it sounds killer. This dac reminded me in a way of the Ayre cx7e cd player in that is has great prat with a highly defined stage and killer bass. This to me is saying alot since the ayre is $3k and the apogee is $500. What could account for such great sound in a small low priced box ? We'll I don't know too much about components and layout and why certain choices make great sound but my conjecture is uses just one digital input firewire so it can optimize for this power is provided through firewire port [*]is shiney and we all know shiney sources sound better I have owned the transporter, ayre cx7e, wadia 302, exemplar 2900, apogee mini dac and the wavelenght cosecant and beleive this unit holds its own with this group. It is probably not as good as the exemplar or ayre but I might pick it over the transporter, mini dac or wadia 302 I'll be doing some more listening this weekend but so far I am really impressed by this dac. I am lukewarm on the headphone section as it is ok but not what a typicall user here might be looking for.

hey don't be cranky about being cranky

the transporter was ok when I had it, a bit thin sounding to me, the output stage is probably where they failed the dacs they used are supposed to be great.

I got it more for it's ADCs then it's DAC but it sounds good a bit sterile out of the box but it pumps the 701s ok. I am going to run it up against the wavelength for kicks later in the week

I am playing around with the apogee duet I picked up today and so far I love it's headphone out and sound overall. I have to pick up some special cables tomorrow from Guitar Center to use it with my amp to give it a real test, the breakout cable uses 1/4 outs powered monitors. This dac would only be useable from a mac computer as it is powered from the firewire input of the mac but so far sweet for $500

I really like the mofo et up tools and there is a digital scale on audiogon I from hong kong that was dirt cheap, less than half what the analog shops sell it for

I do not the scout at all and thought it a step down from my run of the mill LP 12 before I went crazy with the mods. The SOTA saffire was the LP12s equal slightly different sounding but overall equal. The Teres or Gabilier are the 2009 turntables for me. I picked up a crazy expressimo turntable, Sal/expressimo is the guy that does the rega arm counter weights that are probably the most popular. The table is crazy when I get my new bearing for it I'll post up some glory shots. A turntable would not be a difficult DIY design for the mechanically inclined.

Damn I bought this pair (357) new just over the summer and this may be owner number 4 or 5 at this point I sold them to a guy in North Carolina...

I have done a number of drops to the alesis masterlink that came out great. Yes it is a 1x process but I have things to do around the house while the LP is playing. Once you get the hang of splitting tracks on the alesis it is a snap. Here is the crazy thing if you do your track splits well itunes will recognize your LP!! I just sold the alesis and am going to try the new apogee unit that just came out

damn I have serious Crimson lust it will have to wait till 1/1/09

did I read you correct, his wife worked for him until the point to which he got her pregnant then promoted her

I would like to try vcaps in this amp but who knows if it will make much difference if the caps are $100 going interstage tranny coupled would not be much more??

Thrice kindly balanced cabled them at the last florida meet I had the SAA cable and decided to use that

there is nothing wrong with the bass response on the cosecant, i have not heard the brick so I can not comment on it

Flecom did I can open her up later today and take a few glory shots

the floridians typically call me johnny numbers or just numbers in the virtual world jp#s it and easier type. Wayne was first with the many permutations of my user name

sorry I can't follow what you are saying? what solver colored perforated cover? I took the cushion off and they revealed a black ring that looks to be held in by a rim but I can't seem to snap that out? sorry for being obtuse

I almost pulled the trigger on the meridian it looks interesting and I liked the cdps from that era although I am not sure how Empirical implements the usb in on this unit???

this dac bested my transporter and wadia 301 by wide margins. I also liked this better than the esoterics 50/60, ayre cx7. The transporter while good has a tendency to sound thin with some high end glare or hash. The wadia had a thicker sound but lacked air and space. Now the bitch about this dac is there is almost nothing to it it was opened up at the last florida meet and it's a couple of lundi trannies and a medium sized board. I think the mojo with this dac is the use of output trannies and no opamps. The biggest plus outside the sound it the move to a mac mini based system as an entertainment hub. The mini with 2 large hard drives gives me access to about 2800 cds with no fumbling around for the physical unit. IT ahas opened up my listening habits immensely and that alone was worth it. For what is it worth the cosecant seems to be a big step up from the brick but David can give better insight as he owned a brick and listened pretty heavily to my rig at the last NorCal meet.

Well I traded for a pair of ALO jenna cable rewired 701s and of course the left channel is cutting out on me at the earcup. I have a 4 conductor extension that highflyin9 did for me a while back that is totally transparent to me so I thought I would use that cable to rewire these. Ken did a second entry so I am all set up to attempt to wire them balanced but I can't seem to be able to get into the earcup has anyone done these yet. I would stick with the jenna wire but it is all of 5 feet and I need a min of 10ft any help would be appreciated

I'm not really sure what tape you are referring to but there are a number of reasons here are two yes if you made a 24bit direct copy of the master tape then theoretically they should sound almost alike. The problem is everyone discounts the importance of quality analog to digital convertors. second is and I know it sounds like hifi pixie dust but tape just seems to sound better this has been repeated by people like Steve Hoffman and the guys at the Tape Project. They have compared cd transfers to the tape and the tape wins each time. the last piece is if you are referring to why would say the XRCD of Waltz for Debby not sound as good as the tape project version more likely than not ist's the mastering combined with the format. just my2cents

probably not that good for the most part as I have seen tapes at various speeds most are slower IPS the bitch is getting a machine that will have three speed settings if you wanted to play these commercial tapes. The commercial tapes you see were probably high speed duped the tape project is duping in real time. I would think for example unless they made 15IPS tapes that vinyl might sound better than what you normally see on flea bay

We could find out if Dan would loan me one of his seventeen pairs he has accumulated