Tír Na HiFi

The one thing that really surprised us all at Fran's was the amazing effect that the attenuators had on the sound. The impact was immediate and considerable....very impressive for the cost involved!

fergus wrote:The one thing that really surprised us all at Fran's was the amazing effect that the attenuators had on the sound. The impact was immediate and considerable....very impressive for the cost involved!

Yes, they are a revelation, Fergus!

Hi John, previously I used Foobar to rip and save as .wav files and the sound was very good. Last night , despite a few jars in my local, I managed to download and use the EAC software and ripped a couple of CD's, a much longer procedure than Foobar. Listening to them this morning the sound is excellent. One of them (V Morrison Astral Weeks Live) had a little scratch at the end of one track spoiling that track and the next but I was able to rip it with EAC and play it clean. The concert atmosphere is very vivid and the detail level is better. The other CD (Getz meets Mulligan in HiFi) clearly brings the saxes to life. I'll be interested to see the improvements the attenuators may bring.

Yes, Ken, ripping with EAC can be a longer procedure than Foobar, depending on the level of errors it encounters but it is the gold standard for ripping & worth the wait. Comparing a Foobar rip & EAC rip, I'm presuming, from your description, that you're finding EAC rip sounds better? How does it compare to the same CD played via your Teac CDP?

I haven't done a comparison of the same tracks ripped in both but initial impressions are that the EAC rip is giving best sound of the two. For playback I've only used Foobar and it's easy to install and use, I haven't tried any of the others but from other forums Foobar seemsas good as the rest.

How does it compare to the same CD played back via your Teac CDP?

Comparing CD's played on the Teac as a transport to the dac to the same CD's ripped to .wav by EAC and played through the Hiface, I think the Hiface has the edge. The Hiface sound is cleaner and crisper with more of a feeling of being there as they say in all the best reviews. There's not a lot in it, it's not chalk and cheese. I played the same tune back to back twice each to try to answer your question and overall I'd put the Hiface top.

Hi to all
I'm just want to share my impressions about HiFace.
Spend all day listening Ken system and I could say it was something new.
I took my Dac Teac/Esoteric D-2 and my Kimber Illumination D-60 (coaxial) bad thing that it can't play high resolution records so listen only few tracks with ordinary cd sample rate. The sound was nearly as good as cd. Pop up Benchmark dac-1 and the sound open ,full of detail and instruments. Good voice form track :Got to have your love - Mighty Sam McClain
full dimension and body. Amazing where the technology is going?
So I'm puzzled bid time I might start saving the money for Arcam R Dac
Thank you Ken for your time and tasty expresso :)
Some photos starting from lovely Focal speakers

Modest wrote:Hi to all
I'm just want to share my impressions about HiFace.
Spend all day listening Ken system and I could say it was something new.
I took my Dac Teac/Esoteric D-2 and my Kimber Illumination D-60 (coaxial) bad thing that it can't play high resolution records so listen only few tracks with ordinary cd sample rate. The sound was nearly as good as cd. Pop up Benchmark dac-1 and the sound open ,full of detail and instruments. Good voice form track :Got to have your love - Mighty Sam McClain
full dimension and body. Amazing where the technology is going?
So I'm puzzled bid time I might start saving the money for Arcam R Dac
Thank you Ken for your time and tasty expresso :)

You should call back when Ken gets the attenuators & have another listen.

BTW, this is a modified Hiface, not a stock one! I don't know why you think an Arcam rDac will sound better? It may but it ain't necessarily so! It's not so much about how the technology has improved as if you listened to the stock Hiface, I don't think you would be that impressed! It's really about careful implementation. I have identified the shortcomings of the stock Hiface & applied carefully tested modifications to it.

There is a review coming out shortly which has compared it to some much more expensive offerings & without revealing the conclusion I can tell you that the reviewer bought my modified Hiface & his friend wants to also :)

jkeny wrote:

Modest wrote:Hi to all
I'm just want to share my impressions about HiFace.
Spend all day listening Ken system and I could say it was something new.
I took my Dac Teac/Esoteric D-2 and my Kimber Illumination D-60 (coaxial) bad thing that it can't play high resolution records so listen only few tracks with ordinary cd sample rate. The sound was nearly as good as cd. Pop up Benchmark dac-1 and the sound open ,full of detail and instruments. Good voice form track :Got to have your love - Mighty Sam McClain
full dimension and body. Amazing where the technology is going?
So I'm puzzled bid time I might start saving the money for Arcam R Dac
Thank you Ken for your time and tasty expresso :)

You should call back when Ken gets the attenuators & have another listen.

BTW, this is a modified Hiface, not a stock one! I don't know why you think an Arcam rDac will sound better? It may but it ain't necessarily so! It's not so much about how the technology has improved as if you listened to the stock Hiface, I don't think you would be that impressed! It's really about careful implementation. I have identified the shortcomings of the stock Hiface & applied carefully tested modifications to it.

There is a review coming out shortly which has compared it to some much more expensive offerings & without revealing the conclusion I can tell you that the reviewer bought my modified Hiface & his friend wants to also :)

The reason go for r dac just to play media from my pc. I don't want to sell my Teac dac ( it wont play high resolution sample rate) and start everything from new ? I'm looking as well for esoteric p-2 transport to finish what I start . It's nice to have oportunity
stream music and r dac is so far good on reviews. Just thinking thats all