I got my Evo B4B21 last week. I have over 100 hours on it. It must still be breaking in. I am using a Laufer Teknik Memory Player with Roon streaming ripped cd files, Quoboz, and Tidal. At first, there were a lot of ticks and pops. It was kind of like listening to a record. Not sure what was going on, but the last couple of days have been better, with only a couple of very light tick sounds over several hours of listening. I’m thinking maybe it’s my usb cable. I have a few others I could try, but the sound has been so good that I haven’t been motivated to swap cables yet. Maybe my Roon settings are not optimized. I will need to investigate more.
Despite this relatively minor issue, I am finding that there is much less distortion when playing back my favorite music. One strategy that I use is that I listen to poor sounding recordings when auditioning new gear. I am finding that the Evo is making some of my "modern" recordings that are compressed sound more tolerable. Bad recordings sound better. One example is Nathan Rateliff’s self titled album. This is a recording that was intolerable when I had my Benchmark Dac 3L. The Dac 3L is supposed to have near perfect measurements but it made certain recordings unlistenable. I don’t know how the Evo measures, but Rateliff’s album now sounds quite good in my room, especially the song "SOB." I even made it all the way through the dreadfully recorded Oasis album "(What’s the Story) Morning Glory" which is a first for me. I can now make more sense of the fuzzed out, distorted guitar playing and cymbal crashes that are on Champagne Supernova. I have always felt very uncomfortable listening to this album, but now it is border line acceptable, if not great. Jazz recordings are wonderful. The cohesiveness and naturalness of my Mystique V.3 has been retained but now there is more incite into the recording. Also, there is more bass heft. For example, McCartney’s bass guitar playing in "Silly Love Songs" is more prominent. My speakers have an adjustable bass output knob so I can dial it down if I feel it’s going to be an issue, but I’m actually enjoying the extra weight. I think I am hearing more like what a live bass guitar is supposed to sound - and feel - like.
Despite this relatively minor issue, I am finding that there is much less distortion when playing back my favorite music. One strategy that I use is that I listen to poor sounding recordings when auditioning new gear. I am finding that the Evo is making some of my "modern" recordings that are compressed sound more tolerable. Bad recordings sound better. One example is Nathan Rateliff’s self titled album. This is a recording that was intolerable when I had my Benchmark Dac 3L. The Dac 3L is supposed to have near perfect measurements but it made certain recordings unlistenable. I don’t know how the Evo measures, but Rateliff’s album now sounds quite good in my room, especially the song "SOB." I even made it all the way through the dreadfully recorded Oasis album "(What’s the Story) Morning Glory" which is a first for me. I can now make more sense of the fuzzed out, distorted guitar playing and cymbal crashes that are on Champagne Supernova. I have always felt very uncomfortable listening to this album, but now it is border line acceptable, if not great. Jazz recordings are wonderful. The cohesiveness and naturalness of my Mystique V.3 has been retained but now there is more incite into the recording. Also, there is more bass heft. For example, McCartney’s bass guitar playing in "Silly Love Songs" is more prominent. My speakers have an adjustable bass output knob so I can dial it down if I feel it’s going to be an issue, but I’m actually enjoying the extra weight. I think I am hearing more like what a live bass guitar is supposed to sound - and feel - like.