The Great Dac search

[granodemostasa]

I just offered a guy on a'gon to buy a Stello 220.. hopefully i'll end up with it.

[Iron_Dreamer]

I was thinking of you when I saw that listing, esp. since it's in the Bay Area. Good luck there. May the heaviest source conquer 'em all

[humanflyz]

Hopefully I will get my Stello before you get yours, so I can compare it against the Lavry.

[n_maher]

If anyone in this thread is still looking for a killer source they should jump on this. I spent some quality time with Mark's ECD-1 last summer and man, if it weren't for the fact that the Beta22 has literally bled me dry I'd be all of this. As it is I'm turning over couches as we speak.

[ojnihs]

yeah...money is always the issue...damn me

[granodemostasa]

Hey

i have a chance to jump on a meridian 566.24 dac on a'gon, should i go for it? thanks

[granodemostasa]

well, nothing is better than hearing something yourself... so i ordered a VDA-2 combo, should be here late next week. should be an interesting dac.

[tkam]

I like the older meridian gear but I haven't heard the 566.24. Going by the specs which I know doesn't really mean much the VDA-2 should be a good dac. The BB179x series of dacs that it uses are one of the best dac chips in current production.

[granodemostasa]

i forgot to put some impressions up:

Ultimately the Benchmark Dac-1 didn't have the same weight and imaging capacity as the Lavry (that and the bass was severely lacking). nevertheless, the treble clarity, speed, image clarity, details, and echos were all better than the lavry, as was the benchmark's natural soundstage. The Lavry carried with it greater warmth, and simply felt like a new level of realism in compareison to the foggy but detailed Dac-1.

The Stello DP200 was warmer, more euphonic, had a wider soundstage, but didn't layer strings as good as the lavry. the lavry was somewhat dull/ and heavily griany in comparison. the dynamics of the DP200 are the best i've ever heard from a dac (considering the output, it should be), and so is the treble. If there were problems with the DP200 there were only two: that it didn't have as much detail as the lavry, and that it didn't seem neutral but "sweet" in the midrange. other than that, it sounded simply amazing and when using upsampling, far surpassed the level of the lavry... when bypassing upsampling, it was difficult to find differences outside of dynamics.

[humanflyz]

I guess I've been pretty lucky in my two years of being an audiophile; each upgrade I made resulted in noticeable improvements in my system.

My setup went from AT-A900 out of a soundcard, then to K701 out of a PPX, and then to a Lavry-->Aleph 3-->K1000, and finally, to the setup I have now. I am lucky in that I didn't lose too much money trying to find the sound I like, and didn't need to buy a zillion things just to try it out. And somehow, during two years of Head-Fi, I managed to steer clear of its trends, like cheap Chinese gear (think the Zhaolu hype) and portable amps (RSA, line-out docks) and didn't manage to get sucked into the mania of it all.

The Stello is probably one of my better buys, because I really like how it sounds, and the feature set is great as well. It is just more emotionally involving than any other source I've heard, other than the EMM Labs stuff. When I was comparing the Stello against the Lavry, I realized that the Stello is just more engaging over all. I felt more directly connected with the music, to an extent that I didn't really want to compare them anymore and just enjoy the music on the Stello. This to me speaks volumes about what the Stello does for my system. And I think on a technical level, the Stello and the Lavry are not THAT much different, and neither of them really gives up too much to the other.

The headamp in the Stello is a lot better, IMO, than the Lavry's headamp: it's just more powerful period. Over all, not bad at all, considering for what I paid, I got a lot out of it.

[granodemostasa]

Hi, for you Stello MKII owners, what type of detail does it get? i've actually heard this a bit from 220 impressions, that it has problems with getting the same detail as lavry/benchmark. is this the case for MKII? thankyou

[Iron_Dreamer]

I'd be extremely surprised if it were significantly more detailed, since the only differences from the MkI are a slight change to the filter circuit (added one dual-channel opamp), the additional USB input, the lack of heatsinks on the output transistors, and a new brand of relays.

[granodemostasa]

I'd be extremely surprised if it were significantly more detailed, since the only differences from the MkI are a slight change to the filter circuit (added one dual-channel opamp), the additional USB input, the lack of heatsinks on the output transistors, and a new brand of relays.

really? so nothing in the design changed?

[Iron_Dreamer]

Not in any major way I'm aware of. They tweaked the filter stage between the DAC chip and output stage. I've not been able to find any other differences from examining high res pics of the MkII that would effect the sound quality. Of course the only reports I've seen are from folks who've only heard both at a dealer or such, and claimed there was a major difference in sound (also thought the DA100 was a lot worse than the DA220, a load of BS based on my listening).

[deepak]

I might actually "downgrade" (if you can call it that) down to the Stello DA100 soon. I just got an opportunity to get an amazing headphone at a very attractive price so I might move my whole setup back to single ended with a separate preamp.

Iron_Dreamer I see you own both you really feel theres no difference between the DA100 and DA220 sonically?

[Iron_Dreamer]

Yes, I really do. Using both single-ended with identical DIY interconnects into a switchable amp, I can tell no difference between the two, upsampling on or not (assuming both are on the same setting). As I've stated before, perhaps a much more expensive speaker rig might be able to ferret out some difference, but I certainly have not been able to. Considering that the two have the same receiver, ASRC, and DAC chips, along with the same filter and output stages (only halved in the case of the DA100 as there is no balanced output), I really would expect them to sound very similar. Now the 220 does have dual transformers for digital and analog power, whereas the 100 uses a combined one. The DA100 does actually have a lower noise floor, because it combines the +/- outputs of the DAC to drop the noise floor, whereas the DA220 keeps them separate for balanced output. But again, considering the s/n ratio of both, it's not an audible difference, unless you like to crank up a high gain amp with high efficiency headphones and check out the background noise

[granodemostasa]

Hey, update!

the lavry's issues: it sounded like the K701, somewhat dry and uninvolving, with a similar soundstage. good, accurate and very "imagy" in the center but not as big R and L as the benchmark or the Stello. Further, it just didnt' have very good dynamics and sounded very grainy with voices/voicing.

so i went for a VDA2, and i'll update my impressions.. this thing has only played for a few hours....

soundstage- sounds like a GS1000, with compact and upfront center voice but goes very wide on the outlaying soundstage. this isn't the K1000 speaker, but the GS1000 style.

reach- nothing jumps out, it sounds flat.. only that the bass doesn't go as deep as i'd like.. and it's not impactful.

the voicing is right on! i love it..

[Eric5676]

This is one of several threads that finally got me to register and get on in here. (I've had several invites and referrals over the last 6 months at least.)

granodemostasa made a simillar thread to this at head-fi that somehow still hasn't been made a sticky. I'm glad to see that mistake not happening here.

Thanks again!

[NotoriousBIG_PJ]

Stickies are annoying. Yeah, I really want to see the same thread title I'll never read every single time I log onto a forum area.

Biggie.

[Eric5676]

Stickies are annoying. Yeah, I really want to see the same thread title I'll never read every single time I log onto a forum area.

Biggie.

Fair enough point.

[Eric5676]

If anyone in this thread is still looking for a killer source they should jump on this. I spent some quality time with Mark's ECD-1 last summer and man, if it weren't for the fact that the Beta22 has literally bled me dry I'd be all of this. As it is I'm turning over couches as we speak.

I wonder how the Bel Canto DAC3 stacks against this thing, since they're in approximately the same price points and features?...

[deepak]

I wonder how the Bel Canto DAC3 stacks against this thing, since they're in approximately the same price points and features?...

They're both DACs...but the DAC3 has a preamp feature, which is why Bel Canto charges much more for it.

[granodemostasa]

AIM Conversation about the Stello and VDA2

CODEMIKEKENOBI : so, any conclusions?

dejemibarca: alot.

dejemibarca (10:04:33 PM): the first day: stello blew out the VDA

dejemibarca (10:04:40 PM): second day, VDA blew out the stello

dejemibarca (10:05:18 PM): the VDA has twin faults that make it somewhat dull for pop and rock,

dejemibarca (10:06:02 PM): it's center voice isn't airy and it is somewhat distant sounding.

dejemibarca (10:06:54 PM): the Stello has two faults that are glaring on classical music: it doesn't have has good treble extension and it isn't nearly as detailed.

CODEMIKEKENOBI (10:07:18 PM): okay

dejemibarca (10:07:56 PM): it went back and forth... i think the vda is a little faster, but not as clear... so it can get more "messy" sounding in complicated sections

dejemibarca (10:08:48 PM): the stello is warmer, and not as bright. it has a bigger, deeper and more impacting bass... but not as textured.

dejemibarca (10:09:29 PM): the stello does imaging far far better... but not "night and day" like it was with the benchmark v. lavry. dejemibarca (10:10:00 PM): the soundstage is a little bigger side to side on stello but not as deep.

dejemibarca (10:11:11 PM): there was some resolution and "crunchiness" lost in the stello on guitar pieces, while warmth and euphonic qualities were lacking on the vda2

dejemibarca (10:12:48 PM): overall: i think the vda-2 sounds like a very good version of what the benchmark is trying to do. the stello sounds like a good version of what tube dacs wish they sounded like.

[NotoriousBIG_PJ]

"i think the vda is a little faster, but not as clear... so it can get more "messy" sounding in complicated sections"

That statement there tells me the guy might not know what he is talking about.

Biggie.

[n_maher]

That statement there tells me the guy might not know what he is talking about.

Biggie.

I'm with you Biggie, several things about that individual's appraisal of the two dac's strike me as at least somewhat contradictory. Or should I say "messy" and "less clear"?