@shadorne: Well, my cdp has a tubed output and I was concerned that using a separate dac and bypassing the tubes might be a problem, but so far, with the 3 dacs I've tried, it hasn't been an issue. The SS Majestic integrated provides plenty of "tube-like" warmth. In fact, coupled with the Metrum Adagio, it seems like too much weight/thickness. I know these are not audiophile terms-- sorry for my ignorance. Darko described the Aqua La Voce as "cool" but it sounded terrific in my system, except that I found its bass response severely lacking.
DACs and bass response?
I'm auditioning dacs in my system. One (COS) was way to analytical, overall, but had very tight bass. Another (Aqua La Voce) is what some would describe as "musical" and sounds terrific in all aspects except bass. My cdp alone does better in that regard. I have monitors and no subs. Can I expect that dacs that are hyper-detailed will also offer tighter bass as a rule?
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Stuartk - I think you should address the CD transport before you get a new DAC. The source is at least as important as the D/A, maybe more. Before you drop $2500 on a new transport, consider a reclocker that will actually get you much lower jitter in the S/PDIF signal than a transport at a lower cost, and also provide for galvanic isolation to break ground-loops. You can still use your existing transport. The Synchro-Mesh with Dynamo power supply and BNC reference cable combination will do this. You could start with the Synchro-Mesh OTL and the reference BNC cable for $1100.00. This will get you jitter in the 25psec range. Here are some jitter plots comparing the SM to a popular transport: http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=154408.0 Steve N. Empirical Audio |
stuartk As I mentioned in my first post, it has output coupling caps, that's why many owners on the net are changing that cap. If that cap is too small in uF (microfarads) it will roll off the bass too early giving a shallow subdued (cool) bass, increase this cap 3 x in uF and it should fix the problem and give you a deeper stronger bass. Or my preference is to direct couple, but you need a tech for that. Cheers George |
BTW, there are many different ways to implement ESS series chips, so can't just look at the chip used and say it sounds a particular way. Then there is the circuit layout, the section of and matching of various discrete components, etc. all can have effects on SQ - not like a speaker, but something you can hear in a spendy system |
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