Tír Na HiFi

DaveF wrote:all interesting stuff.

A few questions:

A driver change mentioned above gives improved sound quality. If so, what where the "deficiencies" on the older Hiface driver? From a technical point of view what does the young dac driver do that the hiface doesnt?

Does the JKDAC come into its own with Hi Rez files or is it at least comparable if not better than other dacs/CDPs that deal with normal 16bit CD quality?

Is there ANY way to evaluate this DAC using an existing CDP as a transport? (one with an spdif output only).

jkeny wrote:..sometimes you don't know you have "deficiencies" until something better comes along which sounds better. Differences are as I, Ken & Pearse said above.

I would say it's better than most CDP/DAC combinations at 16/44. It surpasses them at higher res. I think Fran is referring to some comparisons that we did with a previous DAC to this one, the results of which were posted on this forum. We compared it to Ivor's Lector CDP & Brian's Wadia CDP & found little between them. But it has advanced in every area since then & I would contend a rematch might return a different result

It's USB input only!

DaveF wrote:

jkeny wrote:..sometimes you don't know you have "deficiencies" until something better comes along which sounds better. Differences are as I, Ken & Pearse said above.

I realise that but it's just the nerd in me wondering how these differences are coming about. :-)
As I understand it, the driver is controlling the USB stream of data to the DAC and managing the flow. So any improvements suggests a change in the data or the management of the USB protocol or something along those lines anyway. I dont know the details of the whole architecture...Im just thinking out loud.
As great as the DAC sounds already, the above findings with the driver suggest that even more performance can be had from this setup and its full potential is still to be realised. That's pretty good going!

Can it knock out the mighty dCS? ;-)

Fran wrote: - not only does the playback software make a difference, the driver does too. It all matters!

jkeny wrote:It takes quiet a lot of very specific technical system level knowledge to write or understand the workings of these drivers. If you have this level of knowledge I know a project that is looking for such a developer :)

Ken Moreland wrote:Pearse, the JKDAC32 certainly sounds tempting, maybe Santa Claus might do something. The combination of JK and Jplay is certainly cutting edge stuff. Maybe you've tried it already, but I see you're working in FLAC and I could never detect any difference between FLAC and WAV until I used Jplay. I suggest you convert a couple of your favourite tracks in FLAC to WAV and compare.

Ken the new JKDAC and Jplay both are the ultimate combination for me, such a leap forward from where i was at with the Young, 2 major revalations in one year...Santa Claus certainly came early this year.

You can use Foobar to convert or download http://www.nch.com.au/switch/index.html ... 4Qodw1c_mg

I have Audio Transcoder but the sound is so amazing from my system now i am keeping WAV in my back pocket as a possible bonus. I listened to a FLAC rip from CD on Sunday that blew me away, the CD was Craig Armstrong "Piano Works" an album i thought i knew well but it was like listening to it for the first time...superlatives ran out some time ago!!

Jplay say their player unpacks FLAC before playing as WAV but they concede that a straight WAV is better.

Thanks for some of your recent wisdom by the way, its been a real bonus to me.

KM

Ken Moreland wrote:I see you've gone global , Pearse!!
http://www.digitalaudioreview.net.au/in ... vs-jkdac32
Good pictures to show the relative sizes.

KM

jkeny wrote:

Ken Moreland wrote:I see you've gone global , Pearse!!
http://www.digitalaudioreview.net.au/in ... vs-jkdac32
Good pictures to show the relative sizes.

KM

He's now big down under, so to speak :)