Tír Na HiFi

jkeny wrote:

GrahamJohnMiles wrote:Hi John. Graham from Ontario here. Do you still have Ciunas units available for evaluation. Am I too far away to give it a trial?

Yeah, Graham, you are too far away, sorry - it's only for local JKDAc32 owners
But the DAC should be ready to order early next week if you want to trial it in your system?

No problem, I was half hoping you'd say that, so I could resist the temptation to upgrade.

GrahamJohnMiles wrote:No problem, I was half hoping you'd say that, so I could resist the temptation to upgrade.

:)

Re clarification I used the jkdac32 with a cayin ha-1a amp and believed it worked very well. The small form of the dac allowed it to sit on a computer desk top and in conjunction with the small footprint of the headphone amp it worked very well using jplay on the desktop. For people who are restricted to this form of listening I thought you were ending up with a great system in a small space?

I would be in the ken camp with regard to the looks. Very happy with the product as is but it probably at least needs some form of labeling. I was just shooting the breeze with regard to what drives people to make a decision to buy. Very much believe there are lots of punters who place a lot of value on the appearance. I know I do as well. If all the kit looked like the jkdac it would be a bit bland looking so I suppose I suffer from a bit of vanity. THe eximus product sold by TLS also seems to have nice functionality which maybe if possible to add might broader your market. The headphone bit definitely has followers don't know about the preamp that would seem unnecessary and probably not up to much.

Anyway if you go all fancy make sure you continue to make the basic tin box for us poor punters!

Great write up on the Ciunas Tony and I have to agree the gap to the Meitner has definitely closed when hearing both through the dedicated audio PC.
Thanks again for the hospitality last night, always a pleasure to hear those Quad 57s married to the wonderful Jadis amp.......ooh and those sparkling tweeters!!

John,

You asked for examples of how you might consider the look of your new product.

This 'Wavelength' is quite similar to your 'Ciúnas' in size and material. The way the branding is handled lends a lot of character and 'reason to believe'. The retro feel brings authenticity. It's simple, sharp and stylish, well executed and with good materials.

The (DAC) market is becoming more and more polarised with Meridian, HRT, iFI, Dragonfly etc., offering staggering performance for a few hundred euros. As for the top end... we all know names and the loot involved. All offer slick styling, innovative finishes and polished marketing.

Your Ciúnas appears, based on the feedback here, to be punching well above its weight and will do well on it's sonic abilities alone. It is unfortunately, much too expensive (for what it looks like).

The potential is considerable.

Terry






The

Thanks Terry,
I know the Wavelength range from Gordon Rankin.
Yes these particular Proton DACs & USB-SPDIF converter do look similar to my basic box design - except for the logo & some engraving on the back.
They are priced at $900 (€700). I haven't heard them so don't know about their sound quality (which is the most important factor to me).
Yes, I agree, I do need a logo & some branding - still working on this.

What about this one? How do people like the look of this?

On my system, the JKDAC32 is concealed behind the Mac mini (a testament to its compact size) and the look of the box is not a concern to me. I concur with others; it's the excellent sound quality which is paramount.
Once set up, I have never had to use the switches, it just charges away from a USB port and can be left on continuously as far as I know - sort of fire and forget in military parlance.

It would be convenient though, to have an enclosure in which the USB and power imput ports were on the opposite side of the box to the RCA connectors. This is especially true when using the direct connection method with short adaptors and with thick interconnects.

Just my 2 cent.
Mark.

John,

I don't have a pre-amp in my system so to use your DAC I need some kind of volume control. Have you any experience of DACT pots? Stepped attenuators that seem to be decent quality. One of those and your DAC in a larger box might be what I need. Any thoughts on this......

Rocker wrote:John,

I don't have a pre-amp in my system so to use your DAC I need some kind of volume control. Have you any experience of DACT pots? Stepped attenuators that seem to be decent quality. One of those and your DAC in a larger box might be what I need. Any thoughts on this......

Sorry, Tom, I didn't see this post.
I use a stepped attenuator on my amplifier input which works excellently - it's not a DACT however.
I'm looking at other box options based on the feedback from this thread so will consider that as an option & let you know.
Just a note though - my R&D dept is fully engaged at the moment :)

I met with Claus today, who took away one of my Ciúnas DACs for audition.
One thing that cropped up during our conversation was Jplay. I reckon that Jplay sounds better than any Mac playback software I have heard (especially the current beta, soon to be released Jplay version). I've heard Fidelia, Audirvana+ & Amarra.
Now Claus is mostly a Mac user using Audirvana+ & doesn't have a suitable PC for trying Jplay.

Something occurred to me that other Mac users may be able to answer? If using a Win8 to go USB stick, can an Intel-based Mac be booted into Win8 using this stick? On a PC the bios has to be changed to make USB the first device to use at boot time (or this is chosen during boot-up sequence) - can this be done on a Mac also?
If so, how?