Worlds best DAC

Hi Lloyd,

I would say this about the CH Precision. I have had the opportunity to listen to it - meaning both the D1 CD/SACD transport and the C1 DAC/Preamp in my system (this was back at the end of November 2011). If you have a digital only system such that you could use the C1 DAC not only as a DAC but also utilizing the preamp section, then it is amazing sounding digital. At the time it was the best that I had heard (which includes the Esoteric P03/D03/G0s combo that I owned at the time, the EMM XDS1, and the full DCS Scarlatti stack.) However, if you have an analog front end and therefore would want to continue to use whatever preamp you are using and would only use the C1 DAC as a DAC feeding your preamp, then while still very good digital, the CH Precision combo will drop back much closer to the other units above based on what I heard - perhaps still a little better in some ways, but its magic is clearly when used without an additional preamp in the chain. Also, the build quality is superb - better even than the Esoteric.

I know that CH Precision was working on an analog input board for the C1. I don't know if it is available yet, but the downside to me was that they were planning to take the signal from the analog input and then convert it to 24/192 digital and process it as a digital signal which is not something that I wanted to do with my analog front end.

Let me know if you have other questions. Thanks
Arnie

Arnie,

Thank you! That is really good to know. I love my CJ GAT preamp, and i am loathe to give it up. Which means i am expecting to use my digital thru the GAT.

I am torn between keeping my Zanden DAC which i have found no desire to change whatsoever in 5 years...and possibly going with the latest upgrade from Zanden which costs a fraction of any new (even second hand) digital system.

...or not spending more on Zanden...if there is something that matches the NOS DAC magic but with all the tremendous detail, low noise floor of these latest DACS.

FWIW, i would not trade my Zanden for DCS Scarlatti even though Scarlatti has much greater detail, lower noise floor...because for some reason, i find the purity of tonality or something about the fluidity of the Zanden is superior. just my two cents.

any thoughts about these elements in the CH Precision are most appreciated! Especially if you've heard the Zanden.

Hi Lloyd,

You're welcome.

I have not heard the Zanden so I cannot comment on it. You can check my system page and see that I ended up going with a digital front end from MSB. I use it through my preamp as well. I was looking for a digital front end that would allow me the flexibility to play redbook CD, SACD as well as Hi-rez PCM (where those were truly hi-rez and not already on SACD). The MSB solution on my system page allows me to do all of this. It also sounds amazingly good. I would say that it definitely betters the CH Precision when both go through my preamp and would give the CH Precision a run for its money when the CH is used direct to my amps. It is a far richer and more natural sounding digital solution than the other digital front ends that I have listened to with amazing resolution, the lowest noise floor of the ones that I have heard and an ease and liquidity about it that is just great to hear.

Other than the non oversampling school such as Zanden, check out the Orpheus Heritage, built by Anagram Technologies, uses their most advanced chip sets which are not available to any other manufacturers.
Unfortunately no digital will ever sound any good until they dispense with the sine x/x assumption in the maths, which creates truncation errors on every calculation. There may be some professional DAC's on the planet that do this, but the issue becomes a licensing nightmare as one could argue that it ceases to be red book CD.
With regard to the Orpheus I note that the designer dispenses with the incoming master clock signal. Instead, the ultra-advanced algorithms inside the Heritage derive a new clock signal from the transport's incoming data
stream.
I have access to a DAC which does the same, it recreates the clock from the data stream and uses non sine x/x calculations along with several other tweaks and it is significantly less grainy than anything commercially available.
I have heard the Meitner/Emm Labs - quite good, sort of musical, great depth, lowish level of grain and DCS - let's just say not my cup of tea.
The oversampling reduces the sine x/x errors.

And further to the above, the other digital system which I can listen to uses a power amp similar in architecture to the Devialet D-Premier which is supposedly the first product to feature a new form of amplification called ADH® (Analogue/Digital Hybrid), specially developed by Devialet.
The amplifier I listen to which predates the Devialet by some years, has an analogue input, digital switching output stage wherein proprietary algorithms reverse out the sine x/x truncations errors as well as any other measureable system errors upstream. It switches at less than a trillionth of a second.
This technology seems to redefine what is possible with digital. Unfortunately for most of us our analogue systems are of a different construct ( yes I still prefer analogue ).