Pro vs. Consumer Equipment

The ART DIO had been hailed as a great low cost unit by people like Brian Chaney who designs the VMPS line of speakers I believe. Also of what I remember there have been Best SOund Awards given to him at CES I believe.This with using a Modded DIO in the line.

I bought one to better my aging DAC section of my Phillips CD-80. While I have no way of judging what it might surpass it seems to me that there must be unbias'd evals done with the unit that people have tried.

Shanling is one unit I hear alot about in which the Modded DIO surpasses for sonic playback.

I have not heard any negatives conserning Wayne of Bolder being mentioned in all this. Maybe he is using components that others are not.

I cannot use the ART Amp as it does not have enough power for my needs . I do think Dan could have gone alittle different way in promoting his mods of the unit. Maybe there is more here than anyone is seeing. I do not know.

I do know that in some instances that going the Modified route is a better value than getting stock equiptment.The value of the mods are in question though. In the case of taking a stock Pro amp and modding it with a 2.5X the value of the stock unit is questionable,but then again I would have to hear it also or see the results others have had.In my case I would not beable to use it given my choice of speakers.

Results remain to be seen,good luck!

Abex: The Dio that i listened to was modified by Wayne and made use of an outboard power supply of measurably higher current than the stock offering ( 3 amps continuous ). This power supply should have allowed the Dio to produce a lower noise floor due to reducing noise generated by the transformer itself and offering the potential for improved dynamics. Even with all of this, i was not impressed with this unit in the least. Nor was my brother. I would rather listen to a Pioneer DV-440 24/192 DVD player than use a Dio in any of my systems. I know that this sounds "extreme", but i'm being 100% truthful here.

We A/B'd the Dio against the stock DAC's in the Pioneer and the Pioneer was far less boxy / offered much greater space, air, dimensionality and center-fill to the soundstage. This is not to mention that the Pioneer produced a blacker background. In comparison, the Dio sounded dull, compressed and 2 dimensional. The sound literally seemed to "cling" to the speakers and refused to spread out.

When all was said and done, putting the Dio into this system was like taking two steps backward in both my and my brothers' opinion. We tried three other DAC's ( one purchased used for $150 used, another for $200 used and another for $300 used ) within the system at the same time and the Dio was the worst of all four methods ( including using the stock Pioneer DVD player as a one box ) of reproduction. For the record, all of the other DAC's sounded better than the Pioneer by itself. Bare in mind that this Pioneer DVD player was available brand new for $149 from Best Buy. Comparing something like this to a modified Dio should have been a "no brainer". Either this specific modified Dio was a "dog" or i have to wonder as to what other people think is "good". Personally, i wouldn't even use a Dio ( modified or not ) as a door-stop. That is, based on the experience that i had with the specific unit that i tested. Sean
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Bare with me for a moment. I want to take a moment to flat out APOLOGIZE. I have behaved badly to say the least. Though zealous, I could have and should have presented myself in a more forthcoming manner. I accept the responsibility of my action and I throw myself on the mercy of the "forum tribunal", all kidding aside, I really do apologize to the audio community at large.

Best regards,
d911

PS> I will be posting this apology on all sites affected.

Sean:
I respect your opinion and I can not counter with experience of doing any A\B testing except with the Phillips 16bit stock DAC which sounded more closed in and electronic.

Here in the Northeast there are no stores that even carry DACs so on the suggestion of an audio advisor on the BB's I I made the purchase of the DIO and had it modded.

After I get the rest of my system in order I will do some research and purchase or borrow another DAC to see what I can findout in my system.

I freely admit that there is alot of hype going on in the BB's of mail order Cos. as far as I can see. One Co. which really alerted me to this aspect was reading about Axiom which I had considerd getting speakers from because they use Metal Driver Technology like NEAR who went under and I liked NEARs ,but could not find anyone that had them. I wrote a piece in SoundStage about the Axes being all they are as compared to the NEARs I rememberd and there was stanch resistance to my observations because Axiom is still in Biz. NEAR is also still in business,but Bill Kieltyka does not make home models any longer.

I now have modified NEARs that I will someday A\B test against Axes to see what I hear. Someone that did get to listen to some Axes were totally unimpressed with what they had heard,so it should be intresting.

I think alot of it has to do with the mine has to be better than yours syndrome also because I own it.Then there is a loyal following which there is nothing wrong with as long as one can be unbias'd and realise that there is or might be something better for the same cost.

Getting back to DACs.I remember the best I had heard was from a ARC\Mark Lev\Proceed\NEAR setup and it was very 3D then and I look to get that type of sound in my room maybe alittle more neutral.

Taking nothing away from your opinion I wonder what you were using for a system when testing the modded DIO? As stated I respect your hearing and testing ability.Just want to know what the synergy was.Don't want to mesh the wrong equiptment and get the same results.

Not that I am disatisfied with my playback system at the moment,but if I can make it better for little cost I am always intrested. At the moment I have a few projects going on trying to enhanche my system and anything that might help is appreciated.

Regards,ABEX