Thanks for your comments. Says a lot given your great system. Good to hear.
I think the real important comment was you stopped listening to vinyl. That is when I realized digital was finally here for real.
Cayin D30 DAC outperforms Weiss, Playback, CH and MSB
Recently I was looking to upgrade my DAC ( Weiss 501mk2). While I was all happy about 501, I asked my local Weiss dealer to lend me their new flagship Helios for a home audition. I could hear the improvement but not justify the doubled price tag in my opinion. Then I was asked by another dealer to try the flagship of SoulNote D3 which is 4 times the price of my 501. Since then I tested in my premise MSB Reference , Esoteric K01-X , Playback Design, CH… all 2 to 5 times the price of my 501. They all sounded better one way or the other but nothing “wow” …
A friend recommended me to give a try to Cayin D30th (or Cayin Soul D30) , which is a Chinese manufacturer making mostly head fi amps / DAC. I was very hesitant with lots of doubts at first but once I put it side by side to compare with ALL the others, the Cayin D30 blew them away within the first 30 seconds!
1: Dynamics : all the drums , piano keys strikes are significantly better at any volume level. Microdynamics are much wider
2: 3 dimensional : by comparison ALL the other DACs produce layers of depth but not in a 3 dimensional imaging like the Cayin. The whole soundstage are much more defined
I played mostly on vinyl but since I had the Cayin I notice I had not play my turntable for over a month! It’s very engaging , musical (analog sound?) I didn’t experience with any of the others DACs
I feel the Cayin D30 owes some proper exposure : it has two completely independent sets of Chip Set ESS 9039 Pro (up to DSD512) for the “modern CDs or files” and a Phillips 1307+1547 (1-bit) for the “Classic red book CDs 44.1hz)I found myself most enjoyed with the classic mode with the CDs I bought in the 90s.
it’s much more balanced, smooth and natural with these “vintage” CDs than most of the remastered/ upsampled reissues. Makes me query does all these MQA ,K2, SACD, DD512 format produce better sounding or just “different” sounding?
Another discovery : the analog portion of this DAC : the separate Power Supply weighs 50i lbs ! I tend to suspect the quality / materials used in the power supply yields a bigger impact on the final SQ, than any of the “modern” digital technologies (MQA / upsmapling rate / connectors and OCXO clock! )
I believed in big name brands but in the last 4 weeks this not so famous DAC just beats every DAC and my ears made the verdict : I sold my Weiss and now a happy owner of Cayin
Anyone in the market for a high end DAC ($10k+) should give this a serous audition
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Not surprised, Cayin makes great gear. Good to see them getting recognition. I used to have a Cayin integrated amplifier, which had 8 power tubes. I couldn't find any fault with the SQ and it was built like a tank. In the end, I made the switch to a European-made integrated tube amp that only requires 4 power tubes. |
30th may be most expensive Chinese dac I've seen, looks pretty impressive on paper. Your results not surprising to me, I went to Chinese dacs some years ago, never looked back. My present Musetec 006 also competes favorably with my very nice vinyl setup, rarely use vinyl anymore.
As for digital format, I no longer care about bit rate/upsampled with recordings or streaming vs rips, dsd, scad, etc. 16/44 fine, always amazes me how much untapped potential this format has/had. How well recordings mastered far more important than the format.
I do differ with my estimation of sound quality of those 'classic' cd's, which I have plenty of. These classics were produced in a time when A./D converters were pretty poor, mostly I prefer remasters of these recordings. |
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@eddiechanghk is it Playback MPD-8 and CH C1.2 that you had to compare vs the Cayin D30 ? |
@thieliste MPS-5 limited edition, CH1.1 both are not the latest flagship models, I will have another shootout with MPS-8 tonight ! |
@thieliste I had a local audiophile who owns the latest Playback MPT8+ MPD8 ( can’t remember the model number but it’s their current flagship transport + DAC) compare against the Cayin. It was a very close call but we only tested red book CD and Cayin’ s dynamic range was 25% better ! Since we only had 5 hours to do the shootout I must say the Playback was not tuned or cable matched to its optimum. If I take the price into the equation then Cayin is a no brainer. |
@wig if you are referring to Cayin , I think the model name is Cayin Soul D30th. |
46Kg shipping weight in a wooden box. Even after deducting the weight of the crate, that's one very heavy power supply in a separate chassis. The quality of the power supply is where high-end audio is heading. No surprise. |
@wig The entry level variant you wish for might be the CS100 DAC. It's in the mid $3k range and designed by the same people. Uses dual ES9038Pro DAC chips, and has selectable tube output using 6922 tubes. I haven't heard it but from what I've read it is very versatile with your choice of tube or solid state outputs. Also a different signal path for single ended or balanced so they each have a different flavor, and a bunch of digital filters to select. Sounds like you could really tune it to your preferences. |
@wig Based on it's tech I'd not expect it to better the dac's you listed. I have both Musetec 006, previously owned 005, 004, also own the Laiv. Don't need tubes with a well designed sabre chip dac, 006 just as musical, analog like presentation as R2R Laiv and higher resolving/transparency, 006 is a really special dac, Laiv very nice, and at it's price an overachieving piece. |
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Some of the forum discussion on the CS100 DAC that I've read seem to put it up there with the top Denafrips models and other quality units. As with anything else it's a matter of implementation, and you can have really great or really poor results whether using ESS, Cirrus, Wolfson, R2R, FPPA, or any other type of DAC. The devil is in the details like power supply, output stages, jitter reduction, and other factors that go way beyond the actual D/A conversion process. |