System Gallery

[Matt]

Hi Johnny

I decided active was the only way to get the sound i wanted. Most of the music i listen to is electronic and requires absolute speed and precision to be heard at its best. The ATC's are perfect for the job. The Chemical brothers recently took delivery of ATC's range topping scm300asl's. Id love a Wadia cd player to replace my Arcam. Someday maybe.....

Hi Fran

Thats good to hear your transport is top notch. Have you tried to build any Dac's yet?

Cheers
Matt

[fergus]

A few photos of the Croft gear, especially the older stuff, might interest the lads Dermot.

[cybot]

I always liked the cut of them nottingham TTs. Thats a really nice looking arm too - is it a nottingham as well?

What cart/phonostage are you using?


Fran

Thanks Fran. Yeah, the arm is the original Space arm and a uni-pivot to boot! The cartridge is just a bog standard Goldring with a 1006 stylus. I tried them all from the 1042 down and I prefer the cheapest one :-)

[cybot]

Nice system Dermot. Does the dog enjoy it too?
Ive an 11 week old puppy who enjoys sitting on the sofa for a listen.

You could buy a few houses with the cost of that system Simon :)

Sam is always rarin' to get into my room whether I like it or not! He's 11 years old and some days you'd never think it :-)
What breed is yours? You'll have to put him between the speakers for your picture :)

[cybot]

A few photos of the Croft gear, especially the older stuff, might interest the lads Dermot.

I'll see what I can rustle up Fergus :-) Anyway there's a Series 5 sitting on top of the Linn (!!) and a Micro 3 at the bottom of the Mana, if you look closely...

[Matt]

Nice system Dermot. Does the dog enjoy it too?
Ive an 11 week old puppy who enjoys sitting on the sofa for a listen.

You could buy a few houses with the cost of that system Simon :)

Sam is always rarin' to get into my room whether I like it or not! He's 11 years old and some days you'd never think it :-)
What breed is yours? You'll have to put him between the speakers for your picture :)

They seem to love everywhere they aren't allowed free run of :)
Here's a couple of pics of her, but ive none with the hifi yet. She's half Boxer, half Collie and mad as a brush.

[Fran]

Nice dog. Does she find the cables tasty?


Dacs:
Don't mention them! I've done a bunch of them. I've a pass d1, a few non oversampling ones, and maybe the best is a pure DIY one based on the ess sabre chipset. Power supplies are huge things for dacs, every time I improve the supply I get a jump in sound quality. Some dacs make it easier to do this than others. the kind of things that improve is resolution and soundstage 3d effect.

If you're up to it, its one of the builds that really rewards. Digital/cd sound has really improved hugely in recent times - the technology is there for great sound but sadly not all manufacturers make stuff as good as they could.


Fran

[Matt]

Hi Fran

She's not really bothered by them. Just sniffing round while i keep a close eye and do my best to encourage her away.

I wouldn't mind trying a Dac.
Ive been looking into buying one, but feel they are very expensive for the little that seems to be in them.

You can also get cheap ones from China on ebay. The Matrix mini i being one of them that ive heard good things about.

Cheers
Matt

[cybot]

Matt quote:

They seem to love everywhere they aren't allowed free run of :)
Here's a couple of pics of her, but ive none with the hifi yet. She's half Boxer, half Collie and mad as a brush.





She's a little mon.. I mean beauty :)What's her name?

[Fran]

Mostly the stuff on ebay is just that.... you get what you pay for.

To be absolutely honest, I am probably the wrong person to ask about this as I have some pretty jaundiced views about some of the DACs that are held in high esteem. On the other hand I can't say I've heard a huge range of them either. But I see a lot about DACs and new "flavour of the month" ones coming and going, and they not really being any different from each other. The chinese seem to be masters at that. I come back again to it - the power supply is a big thing. The thing is, I have this notion that there is actually little enough difference in sound between the different DAC chips. So whether its PCM 1704 or PCM63 or ESS9018 or AK4396 etc etc makes feck all difference. Its really down to the implementation, layout, power supplies and output stage. One of the reasons for this is my experience with the ESS chip. It was hyped up as being "immune" to jitter. So feed it crap and it will still sound brilliant. Loads of figures etc etc to show this. But, when you actually use music, and feed it from a better source with less jitter (again measured) why does it sound better? Likewise, move from simple CLCRC regulated DC supply to much better performing shunt regulator there's a large jump in SQ. This despite the designer of the chip saying that anything other than a basic power supply is a waste as it won't make any difference. Might not make any difference in a sine wave, but it makes a hell of a difference with music! This is not just me ranting - ask Derek (who has the same DAC and transport as me) or jkeny who has also tricked about extensively with power supplies.

The root cause of why the chinese DACs sound OK but not brilliant is that they take the standard circuit from the datasheet and lay it out on a PCB. So in each and every case, all you're really getting is the same deal no matter what case the DAC is housed in. They will work reliably, adequately, and most meet the specs quoted. But in the end they fall far short of whats possible.

So what to do at the end of this err, rant? Just be careful with what you buy. I could certainly recommend a few for small money... but only DIY ones. I'm impressed with a few stand alone CDPs. The Wadia ones seem very good. The Lector that Ivor has is another. The DCS stuff is outstanding (but $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$). The resolution audio and copland aren't bad either. I'm sure there's lots more, but I haven't heard them (eg the PS audio perfectwave looks interesting, but I haven't heard it).

[rant mode off]

Fran