Wyred Dacs--Thoughts?

Buy it before Cullen realizes they priced it too low :-)

Third day of breaking in the DAC-2. Impressed with many aspects so far. Not being very analytical. Just getting used to it. superficial aspects: it's an giant SUV compared to my little Lite DAC-AH; i like the dimmable display; the controls are thoughtful and intuitive; power switch up front - yes!

Comparatively (to my Lite DAC-AH): big defined bass; better sound stage; very detailed highs and timbre that i hadn't experienced before; nice lows and it's detailed timbre (like right now I'm listening to Brett Sparks of the Handsome Family sing in his low voice followed by marimbas in a White Stripes track); the female vocals haven't been as velvety as I like (which could partially be attributed to the Telefunkens that I just put back into my pre). i have some CBS/Hytron and RCA Cleartops to try out. Waiting for the break in to open it up more. It should kick my old DACs butt. not gonna A-B for a few more days.

i'm hoping the break in will give me better mids and even more imaging.
got my fingers crossed. i kind of went out on a limb pre-ordering. it's the first brand new home audio component I've bought since the 80s.

i've been using the Toslink and USB out of my MacMini. using a trial version of Pure Music on occasion. the USB output causes a delay in the audio transmission that's unacceptable for playing movies/tv from the computer. but the Toslink sync is about the same at my old DAC (maybe 3 frames behind the video). i created a keyboard short cut AppleScript for switching the audio output between USB to Toslink. but when Pure Music is running the switch has some kinks. i don't have much hi res music to test. just the Raising Sand album and a couple Jonathan Richman records I digitized from my mediocre turntable set-up. oh, and the 24/44 Beatles in Stereo. i guess I'll be able to A-B those.

i'm not planning on using it as a pre-amp, but will definitely be testing it that way at some point.

ambivalent about the fact that I'll be rolling all my cables and tubes around to get the system tuned.

Cutterfilm - Interesting first thoughts. I'm really looking forward to reading a deeper analysis. Comparison between the DAC-2 volume control and your current preamp would be fantastic.

Cutterfilm ref:

i've been using the Toslink and USB out of my MacMini. using a trial version of Pure Music on occasion. the USB output causes a delay in the audio transmission that's unacceptable for playing movies/tv from the computer.

I was hoping to watch Hulu on my PC using the USB output. Are you saying that audio and video are very likely to be very out of sync through this connection? Any idea why?

Hello All.

Please note that the selected buffer size on the audio preference menu will change the delay of audio based on the size. The larger of the buffer, the longer of delay. When watching movies, you would want no delay. When a Media Center that is used with enough processing power, the buffer can be set to its minimum without any dropouts and the delay shouldn't be a problem. Dropouts are sometimes caused by the computer not being caught up with the other tasks it has on hand. At this point, the processor can’t complete the transfer of the audio packets when the USB interface is telling it to be sent. Several solutions for this are obtaining more processing power and or memory, running fewer applications at the same time, or increasing the buffer size.

When the customer above is using the MAC mini, and the buffer is set high, there should be a delay. I am in contact with him and we will be experimenting to find the ideal settings. The DAC-2 does not have any delays itself, but its’ length can be set in the audio output configurations, and can be set differently based on the audio playback software being used.