@david_ten and others: In order to try and answer the question posted above, I thought it would be helpful to first set out Christiaan Punter's (CP) full response to a question I asked him back in April 2019--it follows here (I will then post separately my "take away" regarding CP's response):
"Musicality remains a relative term and a dangerous one to use.
What sounds musical to me may not do so to you. Either way, indeed, in
terms of audiophile performance, the Pink Faun is the best I have heard.
Since you already own the DX3, you already have a significant portion
of the CX+EX sound and I’m not sure if upgrading to CX+EX would yield
enough to make this change worthwhile. More importantly, since you use
the Joseph Audio Pearl 3s (very nice speakers btw), the balance on your
end will work out differently than on my side with the Wilsons that I
used for this review. It’s always a matter of balance and in my case,
the Wilsons need some warming up. The Josephs may not need this, unless
that is how you like it. Now that I have Kroma Audio Carmen, I think the
conclusion might be a little different for me as well, with more love
for the Pink Faun’s extreme transparency, although successive reviews of
other DACs and streaming endpoints do seem to sustain my preference for
the deeper, more 3D sound of the Antipodes combo. Your 925’s are pretty
neutral but the Joseph speakers are on the full and warm side, as is
the Aeris. The Corus+PSU is very transparent but it’s a Rowland, so it
is still a little sweet. Less so with the PSU, btw. But by changing the
Aeris for the Aqua Formula xHD you will gain a lot of neutrality and
transparency and lose some of that Aeris smoothness. The net effect
would be a more transparent, cleaner, even more hi-res sound. If you’d
then swap the DX3 for the Pink Faun, the sound will head more in that
direction but I think you might be amazed at the extra resolution and
refinement. Now, I think your system can certainly make the best of that
combination but the question is if you want to retain the current
balance or are happy to have it more more toward neutrality. In
conclusion, looking at your two proposed solutions, I’d do neither and
would first audition the Aqua. If you like it then proceed to trying the
Pink Faun. Alternatively, you could also move straight to the Pink Faun
as the Aeris+PSU is still very good as well, just a little too sweet
for my current taste but that aspect may actually combine very well with
the Pink Faun’s extra neutrality. In conclusion, I tend to prefer
multibit R2R DACs (Wadia, CH, Aqua Formula xHD) over Delta/Sigma (Aeris
and the large majority of current DACs) because the latter nearly always
sound somewhat restrained and/or filtered to me. But I know that
opinions vary on this subject so I’d suggest investigating that aspect
for yourself. Also, there are deviations, the PS Audio PWD MKII for
example, is a Delta/Sigma design but sounds almost like a Wadia, not
restrained or filtered at all. But now I’m starting to ramble… Let me
know how you get on. Happy to answer follow up questions."
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@david_ten It is probably is worth noting that I have listened to the Innuos Statement with the Aqua Formula xHD DAC, however, not in my listening room. The speakers were YGA Hailey 2.2s, which I am fond of--but do not own. I liked the presentation--although I thought the overall sound profile needed to be "warmer."
I think CP describes Rowland gear's sound profile very accurately. And I think his Antipodes description is accurate (that should make @hehaw77--very happy :-)). In my system, I think the Innuos Statement is actually providing greater transparency than the Antipodes DX3--which I noted in my review. When CP said that the DX3 is providing much of (but not all of) the CX+EX combo, I'm fairly certain he is correct. As others have noted, the Innuos Mk3 with the Phoenix re-clocker is chasing the Statement sound. BTW I have heard the Mk3 with the re-clocker--it is very good. I personally don't think it is 95% of the Statement's SQ having now listened to the Statement for many hours. But, I do think it is a very high value proposition.
I read everything on the internet about Pink Faun before I pulled the trigger on the Innuos Statement. At that time, I couldn't find a Pink Faun US distributor (that has since been rectified) and the Pink Faun website was consistently down. Not simply down overnight. I mean down for what seemed like a long time. That puzzled me because, let's face it, a music server, is, well, a computer built to specifically handle music. It seemed to me that a company building computers should be fanatical about whether or not the server housing their website was operational. It made me question Pink Faun's operational capabilities to service their brand in the U.S. I confess that might not be a totally fair assessment. But at the time, I was shopping for a new server for a significant amount of hard earned money and the details began to matter a great deal.
Hope this helps as you shop for a server.
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Of course I’ll comment on the below. The EX alone sounds better than the DX3 ; the CX alone sounds better. DX3 is old tech even if its been upgraded. It’s been noted already that the combo sounds much better. Than each unit on its own. Others have also commented that comparing the DX3 to other servers is not a correct comparison. I Really don’t know what more can be said if people want to believe something regardless of facts. I’d venture to say this person has not listened to the combo. Almost positive of that..in fact anyone agreeing with that statement I’d ask if they have heard the combo. If you have then prefer something else fair enough; as I’ve heard both and prefer the combo over anything I’ve heard to date.
I can also say the MK2 with my clocks give me a significant portion of the Innuos Statement sound; which is somewhat correct, and upgrading to the Innuos Statement wouldn’t give me significant up-gradable experience. Which is somewhat true; but I’d be comparing old tech to Innuos top of line.
Quote: "Since you already own the DX3, you already have a significant portion of the CX+EX sound and I’m not sure if upgrading to CX+EX would yield enough to make this change worthwhile." |
@hehaw77 You may want to read CP's Antipodes CX+EX review. CP has listened to many Antipodes' products. He has one of the most favorable reviews of the CX+EX combo on the internet. You can see his enthusiasm for the Antipodes CX+EX combo in his response to me: "...although successive reviews of
other DACs and streaming endpoints do seem to sustain my preference for
the deeper, more 3D sound of the Antipodes combo." I'm pretty sure that before buying the Pink Faun his reference server was the Antipodes CX+EX combo.
Once you read his Antipodes CX+EX review then you can more fully determine whether he never really listened to the combination and just made the whole lengthy review up. Because if you are correct, then CP spent a lot of time telling people how great the combo sounds to his ears when he never actually heard the combo--even though he has pictures that show it sitting in his system. |
provide the link... if this is his quote
"Since you already own the DX3, you already have a significant
portion of the CX+EX sound and I’m not sure if upgrading to CX+EX would
yield enough to make this change worthwhile."
I'd have to see this favorable review for myself; as the DX3 is good but just ok sub par compared to the combo and he EX alone is better.
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