The Great Dac search

[jp11801]

son, if you seriously consider HC "rational" then you simply have not been reading enough.

for those who know: how "good" or bad would you say that the dac I linked earlier is... i'm starting to seriously consider it.

-david

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???

[granodemostasa]

http://cls.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls.pl?dgtlconv&1202403393

CEC... any knowledge on it?

http://panolux.com/CEC/DX71mk2/index.htm

[granodemostasa]

in fact, this thing is starting to really interest me. it uses a rather unusual dac: http://panolux.com/CEC/DX71mk2/npcsm5865cm.pdf

a amplification stage using modules: http://panolux.com/CEC/DX71mk2/index.htm

[granodemostasa]

poor english-typing-skills dude in SF would not let me hear it before purchase. nice...

[crass]

I live in san francisco!

[Jon L]

poor english-typing-skills dude in SF would not let me hear it before purchase. nice...

Keep saving your monies for bigga and bedda DAC's. We all know you won't be satisfied until you get into EMM/top Esoterics/APL, etc.

The CEC DAC basically uses the same "discrete output stage" in that small plastic module as used in the AQVox DAC and Citipulse DAC.

And you have already owned the Lite DAC60 type, which is really the same thing as Monarchy in question, with addition of another tube stage for "preamp" and a "SS output," which is most likely signal taken off just before the tube stage, then gone through an op-amp.

[neilvg]

Keep saving your monies for bigga and bedda DAC's. We all know you won't be satisfied until you get into EMM/top Esoterics/APL, etc.

The CEC DAC basically uses the same "discrete output stage" in that small plastic module as used in the AQVox DAC and Citipulse DAC.

And you have already owned the Lite DAC60 type, which is really the same thing as Monarchy in question, with addition of another tube stage for "preamp" and a "SS output," which is most likely signal taken off just before the tube stage, then gone through an op-amp.

Just buckle down and get an APL. The SA10 mod or whatever is supposed to be awesome and 'close' to that of the 3.0.

Neil

[granodemostasa]

i'd need to be able to get a SA-10 first.

[luvdunhill]

in fact, this thing is starting to really interest me.

granodemostasa:

have you ever heard a non-oversampling DAC?

[granodemostasa]

i've heard plenty.

[luvdunhill]

well, if you ear leans towards the NOS "sound", check out the two DACs I posted a few days back in this thread (www.ecdesigns.nl). A pretty innovative approach IMHO...

[granodemostasa]

i didn't mean i've liked most of them. Nearly every dac I admire is absurdly oversampling: wadia, esoteric, Emm, APL.

in any case, there's alot of claims there... and not enough of the details that I would like to know about a dac before buying it.

[luvdunhill]

Nearly every dac I admire is absurdly oversampling: wadia, esoteric, Emm, APL.

fair enough. I'd be curious what you finally end up with If you like the above, I think the North Star comes awful close, considering the price.

[fierce_freak]

well, if you ear leans towards the NOS "sound", check out the two DACs I posted a few days back in this thread (www.ecdesigns.nl). A pretty innovative approach IMHO...

I've been looking at this lately, too. I'm trying to decide if it'll be worth the cash expenditure or not (already have an Opus which is pretty nice).

[luvdunhill]

I've been looking at this lately, too. I'm trying to decide if it'll be worth the cash expenditure or not (already have an Opus which is pretty nice).

I built one of the eariler ones and am about to build another. We can work something out once it's done if you'd like to hear it... I can definitely give you a copy of the revised BOM. I wouldn't hold my breath, Feb. is likely unless someone lights a fire under me to get it done for the next DFW meet...

[iceman94]

I built one of the eariler ones and am about to build another.

Have you compared it to anything, or otherwise have any impressions?

[fierce_freak]

I'd love to build one and compare it with my Opus, but based on the price list I was sent, the D-I 16 costs around $1000, minus a case O.o

I haven't checked to see if it could be done cheaper sourcing my own parts, though.

[luvdunhill]

I'd love to build one and compare it with my Opus, but based on the price list I was sent, the D-I 16 costs around $1000, minus a case O.o

I haven't checked to see if it could be done cheaper sourcing my own parts, though.

there are a lot of parts that are hard to get over here... like the Philips parts and the fancy polystyrene caps. As for the TDA1543 there are cheaper places to get those. I'll work on my BOM and total things up later next week for 'ya.

[philodox]

I'd like to see that 16 dac one, but with the tubes the 8 dac one uses, balanced output, and some crazy huge film caps.

[luvdunhill]

I'd like to see that 16 dac one, but with the tubes the 8 dac one uses, balanced output, and some crazy huge film caps.

tube stage can go on either the TDA1543 or TDA1541 based dacs...

[fierce_freak]

there are a lot of parts that are hard to get over here... like the Philips parts and the fancy polystyrene caps. As for the TDA1543 there are cheaper places to get those. I'll work on my BOM and total things up later next week for 'ya.

Cool, thanks luvdunhill

[deepak]

tube stage can go on either the TDA1543 or TDA1541 based dacs...

Interesting...is there any measurement data on diyaudio?

[fierce_freak]

I still haven't really seen any impressions on the Ultra Micro. Anyone out there spent some time with one (or a Max DAC in any form)?

[PFKMan23]

Ask n_Maher, afterall his hertsens DAC is basically a max DAC (balanced and snazzy and such).

[n_maher]

Ask n_Maher, afterall his hertsens DAC is basically a max DAC (balanced and snazzy and such).

I'm listening to it as I type and about to start a little back to back vs. the Wadia 830 over the next couple days. Both are feed single ended outputs to tyrion's MPX3. I'm going to run them like that for a while and then run them both balanced to the mini32 and we'll see just how good this little dac is. The WADIA was originally ~$3000 and still considered to be pretty decent as far as I know. In fairness though, I'm generally not the pickiest guy so I don't expect to uncover earth shattering differences between the two.

And the Florida crew got to spend some time with the Hertsens recently, I think their impressions are in the thread on Head-Fi.