tyrion

I guess you being Reks' medical advisor is similar to me being Nates' legal advisor. I just get paid less.

That's good to know. Doesn't Reks have a Northstar as well?

A very kind member from the Bay Area: http://www.head-case.org/audio_gear_for_sale/hc_special_cheap_k1000-t2971.0.html

It's a good thing I have a K1000 again.

The Mac Mini clearly is marketed as a home entertainment center by Apple as Wadia is doing with this device based upon my reading of the pdf on their site.

Before you ship it, through in a usb input.

Between the MPX3, K1000 deal and this, I'm going to be deep on your shit list. You have the Hertsens which is no slouch. I want to give it another shot v. the Cosecant and now the Duet in Mayberry.

We agree on everything except as to the Cosecant providing "vocals and instuments in the midrange with more body and warmth" which is fine. For me, I think they maybe close in the mids but there is more warmth in the mids with the Duet. Some of this might be related to the gear we are using. I don't know if you are using speakers and RS-1/HP-2. I'm using different speakers/amplification (ss) and 650s which is very different than your gear, so who knows.

This was using 650s/Grand Enigma cable/Berendsen IPA 80 headphone out. I will have a 600/Lambda Pro/MPX3/007t this week to try it with as well. Today I will check the volume matching with my speakers (should be the same). I need to try some cans that aren't quite as bass heavy as the 650s are. I am not saying yet the Duet is better than the Cosecant but they certainly are different. Some of what I'm saying seems to be consistent with jp's findings. When I compared the Pico to the Predator, I felt the Pico had a more refined hifi sound. It was the more balanced dac/amp combo. I'm thinking that might be the case hear, that the Cosecant is more balanced and refined. I'm trying not to let the relative cost of the two items influence my findings. I wanted qualify my earlier statements.

I went back to find your report, which I did. I've been looking at his posts. I do remember getting involved at some point in that long review thread. I just don't remember.

You're right, I forgot that the Wheatfield is a Millet. All the more reason to take a shot at this phono stage.

He should have one by then. I think I will give him a call on Monday. Good idea.

I'll make sure to bring my K1000s.

I should have jumped at the $695 price but I didn't know much about it. I have mixed feelings on changing the price like that but Todd's a cool guy so I'll cut him some slack. It's $150 more. If it can compete with $1000 phono statges then at $850 it's a good deal. A lot of you guys speak highly of Peter Millet (I'm pretty sure I've never heard one of his amps) so I'm hoping this is a contender and add to that a chance to support Todd it could be worthwhile to give it a try.

The test for me will be to see what others hear at Voltron's meet. But it will have to be in a quiet room, not under meet conditions.

I picked up a sound level meter today and was able to equalize the volume between the Cosecant and the Duet. I used a Cardas Burn In Sweep to match the volume. The Duet has the higher output. The volume control on the integrated has a digital readout so it was easy to figure out how to equalize the volume for the two sources. As I've said before, the biggest difference between the two is the bass response. There is no question, now that the volume is balanced between the sources, the bass goes deeper with the Duet. It's more palpable from the Duet. The Cosecant has a bit dryer sound. With less bass prominence, it seems to take away from the depth of the image. The mids seem about the same with some more warmth from the Duet. The highs seem to be fairly close. I don't think the warmth of the Duet is due to any high end roll off. If there was, I'm not picking it up. I put on So What to see if either source picks up the cough you can hear at 9 seconds in any better. Both picked it up and it was pretty even. I've been just listening to the Duet and thinking whether I can live with the sound I'm hearing if this was my source and the answer is yes.

Wasn't the price at $695 or was that just a preorder price which I missed out on?

Mac Mini/External Drive (mine is doing just fine)/DAC/iTunes is so simple, I think you could even figure it out. It is almost plug and play. I don't get it, dac or no dac, this thing has no appeal to me either as a home or office source. If it has a dac, how good can it be at this price point, even if manufactured in China.

That's what I've been doing since 9:30 this morning. I don't have the Pico yet. The biggest difference is in the low end. The Duet definitely goes lower. It's not a subtle difference ether. Right now I'm going Berendsen IPA 80 pre > Berendsen STA 150 amp > SA Rangers. Over the Hills and Far Away, at about 1:27 into the song when everything kicks in, the bass just kills with Duet. I want to say that the Cosecant sounds thinner because of this. In terms of soundstage I'm thinking about the same but the depth seems better with the Duet.

It can be used just like the Pico, but in a bigger form factor with more wires all over until someone builds an cable that will eliminate all the ones that are not needed for our purposes. But I agree it can be used the same as the Pico for headphone listening on the go using a notebook. As I said before, the Pico is likely to have a better headphone amplifier. This and whether it's a better DAC remain to be seen. For me, the Pico will be my traveling partner either way.

The Duet isn't meant to be portable (I realize that pretty obvious). To use the Pico in a home set up you would have to run it from the headphone out which I am guessing would be a compromise. The Duet has a volume control but you can set it so it is disabled (0 db). I plan trying the Pico as my office source. I am also curious as to how it will compare with the Duet and will know pretty soon. I didn't buy the duet for a headphone amp and I would be shocked if the Pico wasn't better. Vicki, I would love to have a mini meet. I just have to see if I can put it together before MOA.

I wonder if anyone will have one at Voltron's. I bet the Duet compares favorably to the Exemplar. Gene and maybe Al as well will have mac notebooks for the Duet. I will bring mine so there will be two.

Mac only.

On jp's recommendation I picked one of these up in my never ended quest to find a source as good as the Cosecant for less money. I don't know if I found it but I am closer than I was yesterday. This dac is by far better than the Cayin I auditioned a few weeks ago. This dac is really giving the Cosecant a run for the money. To me it has a slightly warmer sound but still incredibliy detailed. The bass response is to me where it is clearly a winner. I've volume matched as best I can without a meter (picking one up tomorrow) and on every track I play there is very noticable difference. The bass just goes deeper. I mentioned the volume matching because being off a bit can create the illusion of deeper bass so I will wait for the meeter before passing judgment. It's difficult to get out of my head the fact the Cosecant retails for $3500 while the duet retails for $500. Something this relatively inexpensive shouldn't sound this good. At least that's what I keep telling myself. As I listen, I'm asking myself whether I can live with this sq as part of my system and the answer keeps coming up yes. At the moment I'm going strictly with my speakers but will give Tom H's 650s with my GE Senn cable a try later.

I agree, I wasn't buying it. Get a Duet.