New JKDAC32 USB DAC

[kyrill]

John yr old address: http://sites.google.com/site/hifacemods/ deserves to be rerouted ( in one breath) to your much more professional but new address http://www.johnkenny.biz/, my 2 cnts ;)

[jkeny]

Kyrill,
I have routed my new address to the Google sites one!
All my webpages are hosted on the Google sites domain so I can't do it the other way around until I buy some hosting services commercially & move everything across to it!

[Ken Moreland]

Well done,JK, good review!
KM

[Fran]

Congrats John!!


Well done!


Fran

[jkeny]

Thanks, guys :)

[tony]

Tried the new braided usb cable connector thingy. I dont know if I am meant to say it is better than the direct connection or not?
It sounds really fine to me and I cant detect any disimprovement if anything maybe a tad tighter all round but marginal. It is just the right length and is much easier to operate and live with then a longer usb cable or the direct connectors. Where do I buy it?

[jkeny]

Tried the new braided usb cable connector thingy. I dont know if I am meant to say it is better than the direct connection or not?
It sounds really fine to me and I cant detect any disimprovement if anything maybe a tad tighter all round but marginal. It is just the right length and is much easier to operate and live with then a longer usb cable or the direct connectors. Where do I buy it?

Great, Tony, thanks for the feedback. MichaelP on Jplay makes them & I had suggested that I might be interested in hosting it on my website. Would you mind if I posted your comments on Jplay thread or do you want to give him feedback yourself?

[tony]

Hi John Fire ahead post away sure it is all positive,I am very happy with it and have been listening with it for the evening. If I got it I would just plug it in and forget about the connectors. It detracts nothing is safer and looks much better. When is he producing the 100% wool braided version? Personally I would prefer a nice rubber coating as it would probably wear better (dont know how practical that is?)

[jkeny]

A review from Bruce Brown of Puget Sound studio posted here http://www.whatsbestforum.com/showthrea ... post116867

Would first like to thank John and Paul for the opportunity to audition this wonderful DAC. I've always been skeptical of most of the lower priced units because I've never really heard one that I could live with. We've had DAC shootouts at our PNWAS meetings and I've really been underwhelmed at what I've heard so far. I've invested over $100k trying to chase the ultimate in A to D and D to A technology over the past year. I now have my reference converters that I use on clients material and couldn't be happier.
When I was approched and asked if I'd like to try out a new DAC, at first I put it off. I did some research and was also trying out new native software in the studio and needed a DAC to try it out. So I told John to send it to me.

The software I'm using is Magix Sequoia. It's a native digital audio workstation that is capable of sample rates up to 384kHz. I also used it on the server software "Emotion" by Merging Technologies, the same company that makes the Pyramix workstations we use. I also used the DAC with JPlay by itself. Unfortunately I could not get JPlay to work with anything greater than 192. I'd just get noise/artifact with 352.8 and 384 files.
When I got the DAC I opened the package and saw a nondescript black box with RCAs and a USB port on one side and a switch on the other. I connected the DAC using a new JPS Labs USB cable and SC3 interconnects.

The first cut I listened to was the Oscar Peterson "We Get Requests" that we mastered for FIM. The DAC was very coherent from top to bottom. Nothing sticks out to me in a bad way. The hardest part of a DAC is to recreate the soft parts. I can sense the size of the venue and reverb tails go out all the way without falling off into the black.
The bass is nice and tight. Imaging on upright basses are spot on. They have good definition and body. Nothing bloated or unnatural. Snare hits are fast. I can hear the body of the snare for 1-2sec. It doesn't fall off like other converters. Piano is strong throughout the whole range. Voices are very natural and brass doesn't make my ears bleed.. especially muted trumpet. The only thing I found lacking are tiny cymbal hits. We mastered the Sheffield Track and Drum album for FIM as well and the quiet cymbal hits aren't quite there. I can hear the initial transient, then it falls off too quickly into the noise. If I turned the volume up, I could hear the decay though. I really had to nit pick to find anything wrong with this converter. Remember, right behind me was the best of the best, so I knew what it had to do to impress me.

All in all.. I'd say it's the best inexpensive converter I've heard yet. I'd put it up against anything under $5k. We'll be getting the Mytek 192/DSD DAC in here again and would love to directly compare the 2 head to head. From what I remember, the Mytek has its work cut out for it! Great job John!!

[tony]

Really John you need to win a what hifi best dac of the year award 2012 to convince the doubters.
If you just take out a large add in that mag you never know what might happen.

Really well done again. You are certainly receiving a lot of positive views throughout the globe.