DACing Off

[morphsci]

Well, if nothing else, that is just fuckin' cool.

[Dreadhead]

Yup it adjusts everything on each start up after the oven it up an running. It is absolutely fucking cool.

[Sherwood]

Amen, Duggeh. It can, and likely will, mysteriously decide to turn off again some time in the future, so no matter how sweet it sounds it needs to go back to whatever bermuda triangle it came from.

Enjoy it while it works, though

[TC_Shadow]

DACing off is time consuming. So far the winner is CAL Alpha followed in some distance by DAC 1 and the Transporter internal DAC. I hope my impulse ECD1 purchase will dethrone Alpha, since my Alpha is only good for Redbook audio. Granted DAC 1 is more dynamic and has better sound stage and the bass def hit harder (DAC1 is not cold in comparison to both Alpha and Transporter)

[VPI]

The first contender showed up today for round two of the great Squeezebox DAC shootout. The Perfectwave DAC is in the house. Haven't listened much as I am trying to figure out the millions of filters, etc.

The packaging was very good with the unit wrapped in a nice cotton sack and riding in a suspended film cocoon for shock absorption.

I don't have any I2S sources so I am having to settle for Coax out of the Squeezebox. Sound varies greatly based upon the filter used so I think this would not be the DAC for the Anal amongst us as you just get through sampling all the filters when the song finishes and you have to start all over.

I wanted to thank Ron at Liquid Audio for getting this out to me so quickly, much appreciated.

[The Monkey]

Jeff, I eagerly await your impressions. Glad to hear purchasing from Ron worked out.

[n_maher]

[digger945]

I've read some pretty remarkable comments about EAD dacs.

[swt61]

^ Ditto. Nice Nate!

[guzziguy]

I love the "blue" wires (they are yellow here). I imagine that most of them disappeared in the next revision of the board.

[n_maher]

So far I'm not sad about my purchase, that's for sure.

[TC_Shadow]

ECD-1 is in the house..but I am not... school sucks...

[Salt Peanuts]

So far I'm not sad about my purchase, that's for sure.

So when are you doing to start modding it?

Also, how does it compare to the Hertsens?

Edited October 6, 2009 by Salt Peanuts
me can no spell

[n_maher]

So when are you doing to start modding it?

Probably not going to.

Also, how does it compare to the Hertsens?

Won't have time to back to back it till this weekend at the earliest but the EAD didn't suck, the midrange was particularly nice w/ the Sigs/SRM-T1W last night.

[VPI]

Well I have a few hours under my belt with the new PerfectWave DAC and though it has its quirks, the sound ranks up there with some of the best digital I have heard in my system. I am mostly using Filter 3 which is MP Soft "Minimum phase soft knee filter. Low pre-ringing, minimal group delay, minimized post ringing, good phase vs. frequency, soft cut-off." I have the upsampling set to 96. PS Audio recommends the Minimum Phase Apodising Filter but I prefer Filter 3 out of the Squeezebox.

I don't know what any of that crap means but this filter sounds the most like an excellent Vinyl set up, which I will always use as the standard. Sounds closest to my VPI TNT-HRX with Lyra Titan Cartridge with the same huge dynamics and to my ears maybe a little less bass. Same midrange richness and also has that wonderful ability to recreate the recording space, which is something I feel Vinyl will always do better than digital.

The most interesting part is that the differences in the filters are not small, the changes are immediately recognizable and I think I just gravitated to the most analog filter to my ears.

I definitely prefer it to the Weiss on all levels.

[TC_Shadow]

In the end, I sold the North Star. It was quieter with a balcker background, but it was a bit recessed in the mids. Conversely, the bass and mids of the ECD-1 were fuller and more satisfying--in some cases by a lot. The North Star had a better sound stage, but the ECD-1 was more musical and euphonic, especially with guitars and female vocals. The ECD-1 is a bit more congested than the North Star, which I attribute to longer decay and a higher noise floor with the ECD-1. In a way, I think the ECD-1 has more "flaws," such as some glare in the mids and the aforementioned congestion, but I found it to be the more musically satisfying DAC. However, I also could easily live with the North Star if I had to. I think it's a fine DAC.

Now in-house are the ECD-1, the HR UDAC, and the Dodson DA 217 mkII. I'll start a different thread.

I am now on to the

You might be interested to know the several "short-comings" of ECD-1 are, for all practical purposes, cured with using XLR output.

SD Transporter + ECD-1 is proving to be so very close to Cx-5e, although transporter + CAL Alpha still has the edge in presence (hard to beat tube at their own game)

[The Monkey]

How are Wadia DACs, generally? I have not heard one.

[dreamwhisper]

You might be interested to know the several "short-comings" of ECD-1 are, for all practical purposes, cured with using XLR output.

depending on what you thought the short-comings were in the first place I guess..

what did you think the short-comings were?

How are Wadia DACs, generally? I have not heard one.

fwiw the guy who sold me my sf replaced it with a top-end wadia

[TC_Shadow]

depending on what you thought the short-comings were in the first place I guess..

what did you think the short-comings were?

fwiw the guy who sold me my sf replaced it with a top-end wadia

sound stage and bass definition for the most part..oh and this lack of "soul stirring" quality.

But thanks to this post, I finally found a DAC I can enjoy via my balanced inputs on my amp

[n_maher]

How are Wadia DACs, generally? I have not heard one.

Overpriced?

I liked the Wadia CD player that I had well enough, it was built like a tank and had a pretty unique feature set (built in remote preamp, digital inputs) but Wadias in general seem to command a premium price. Especially the older stuff.

About the only piece of gear that I'd like to own made by Wadia is the Ipod Dock.

[VPI]

You can get the Dock and the new matching DAC from Wadia that is supposed to be coming out end of this month I think.

[GPH]

Any opinions on Adcom GDA-600? I think there's a person or two here with one if I remember well, and its got excellent reviews on audioreview.com and at a couple of other places. I could get a local deal at 275$CAD for an almost NIB one, I was wondering if it's worth it for this DAC.

I'm scared of entering the whole "vintage DAC" scene, it's scary how often some people here change DACs.

[cetoole]

I like my GDA-600, though I paid much less than $275CAD for it. Also very little memory of it stock. There is one on Canuck Audio Mart for $200, though its a province over from you.

[The Monkey]

I'm scared of entering the whole "vintage DAC" scene, it's scary how often some people here change DACs.

Don't let those ding-a-lings frighten you.

[GPH]

I like my GDA-600, though I paid much less than $275CAD for it. Also very little memory of it stock. There is one on Canuck Audio Mart for $200, though its a province over from you.

Thanks, I think I'm going to wait until I find a better deal. I had already contacted the guy on Canuck Audio Mart, but he won't ship and driving from here to Toronto isn't exactly a little promenade.

It's not like I really need a DAC anyway, the Denon I have right now does the job, but I'm curious at trying other budget vintage options.