What's this forum's opinion on NOS DACs?

[Aura]

It's a big ass lizard that can give you flesh-eating disease with one bite. What's not to like?

[Voltron]

ok, just for clarification:

this forum's opinion on anything: nothing.

the individual members have opinions. if you want group think, fuck off.

I have been thinking of posting something of this nature since first reading his stupid thread title. You said it much better than I would have.

[The Monkey]

That fucking lizard scares me.

[Voltron]

[Dusty Chalk]

It's black.

[morphsci]

That fucking lizard scares me.

they probably eat monkeys.

It's black.

Yeah they are pretty much the coolest lizard still here

[ecclesand]

Yeah they are pretty much the coolest lizard still here

Nom Nom Nom Nom....

[AmanGeorge]

In general, I haven't been too impressed with the NOS DACs I have listened to (Monica3, which I used to own, Devilsound) relative to my PS Audio DLIII - they didn't sound as transparent, dynamic, or snappy. They sound a little artificially warm/smooth to my ears.

[Asr]

^ Is the DLIII actually that good? I've been reading the impressions of it over at HF with a huge dose of skepticism. PS Audio has always been sketchy you know.

[Icarium]

It's not bad for an in production dac. Filburt has said the design is pretty solid for the money in comparison to other contenders in that price range. It sounded about as good as a dac1600 to me, but different.

[AmanGeorge]

I really like the DLIII, although I haven't compared it to much - just the Monica3, Devilsound, and Music Streamer+. Of those, the DLIII (mine is stock) is definitely my favorite. IIRC, Larry has/had been using a stock DLIII in one of his rigs for a while, and his rigs are much higher-end than mine.

I'd be interested to see how it stacks up against one of the other well-regarded USB DACs with presumably superior technology like the Music Hall 25.2 (asynchronous) or a Gamma 2 (USB -> I2S).

Fill me in on the PS Audio sketchiness

[Deadneddz]

Does it have anything to do with cases of PS audio PPP's malfunctioning due to overheat? Or perhaps that moar noise harvesters=moar better?

[Asr]

Fill me in on the PS Audio sketchiness

Well I never went looking for the dirt on what really went on, but a couple years ago when I was researching their power products, I came across more than one forum where folks seemed to agree that at one point in time, PS Audio had made some dubious claims about some power conditioners and they used to not be designed very well either apparently, or something like that. I'm sure you could turn up more info if you went searching.

[Pars]

From what I've read, in their past life of building power amps, they seemed to be garnering the same sort of reputation as Flame Phase Linear did...

[Smeggy]

New Old Stock DACs?

Kewl

[dsavitsk]

In general, I haven't been too impressed with the NOS DACs I have listened to (Monica3, which I used to own, Devilsound) relative to my PS Audio DLIII - they didn't sound as transparent, dynamic, or snappy. They sound a little artificially warm/smooth to my ears.

This is the issue with these comparisons -- the PS Audio is a decently designed and built piece of equipment made by engineers who have some idea of what they are doing. The Monica is a piece of garbage designed by someone who does not. Instead, compare a good oversampling dac to something like the Abbingdon or even an AudioNote for a more fair comparison.

My experience, using both NOS and OS dacs with the same IV and analog stages is that they are closer than they are different. Most of the overly warm detail lacking that people associate with NOS has more to do with the output stages, or the cheap tda1543's typically used than anything else.

Personally, I like a differential pair of AD1865N-K's run NOS more than a PCM1794 that is oversampling. But, both are fine. And, for the record, I like the TDA1543 -- It's fun to tinker around with: http://gilmore2.chem.northwestern.edu/ubb/showpage.php?fnum=3&tid=7740

New Old Stock DACs?

Oddly enough, yes. Almost all NOS DACs are based around the TDA1543, TDA1545, TDA1541, or AD1865. I guess you can still get AD1865's from AD, but it is clearly an old design. The others have all been out of production for years.

[HeadphoneAddict]

I really like the DLIII, although I haven't compared it to much - just the Monica3, Devilsound, and Music Streamer+. Of those, the DLIII (mine is stock) is definitely my favorite. IIRC, Larry has/had been using a stock DLIII in one of his rigs for a while, and his rigs are much higher-end than mine.

I'd be interested to see how it stacks up against one of the other well-regarded USB DACs with presumably superior technology like the Music Hall 25.2 (asynchronous) or a Gamma 2 (USB -> I2S).

Fill me in on the PS Audio sketchiness

It's not bad for an in production dac. Filburt has said the design is pretty solid for the money in comparison to other contenders in that price range. It sounded about as good as a dac1600 to me, but different.

I think the PS Audio in 96K up-sampling mode sounds almost identical to the Stello DA100 and DA100 Signature. In the 192K mode it sounds a little brighter with a more spacious soundstage, but the change is not huge.

I slightly prefer my Apogee mini-DAC to the PS Audio or Stello, but I do think they are both very decent for the price. I've heard the Cullen stage IV a couple of times at meets last year, and find it to be a little more refined sounding, with less edge to it in 192K mode, so I was planning to do the mods someday.

Of interest, my PS Audio XLR jacks were putting out 5v at 60Hz at RMAF while the Cullen Circuits modded one was doing 2v at 60Hz, which we tested because it seemed like mine was overdriving the eXStatA amp's inputs while the Cullen and the Opus DAC were not. Cullen confirmed for me that they turn down the juice on the output a little if asked.