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DACs and bass response?

I'm auditioning dacs in my system. One (COS) was way to analytical, overall, but had very tight bass. Another (Aqua La Voce) is what some would describe as "musical"  and sounds  terrific in all aspects except bass. My cdp alone does better in that regard. I have monitors and no subs. Can I expect that dacs that are hyper-detailed will also offer tighter bass as a rule?
stuartk
audioengr
3,282 posts
 

Stuartk - I think you should address the CD transport before you get a new DAC.  The source is at least as important as the D/A, maybe more.  Before you drop $2500 on a new transport, consider a reclocker that will actually get you much lower jitter in the S/PDIF signal than a transport at a lower cost, and also provide for galvanic isolation to break ground-loops.  You can still use your existing transport. The Synchro-Mesh with Dynamo power supply and BNC reference cable combination will do this.  You could start with the Synchro-Mesh OTL and the reference BNC cable for $1100.00.  This will get you jitter in the 25psec range.

Here are some jitter plots comparing the SM to a popular transport:

http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=154408.0

Steve N.

Empirical Audio

georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
stuartk 
  Darko described the Aqua La Voce as "cool" but it sounded terrific in my system, except that I found its bass response severely lacking.

As I mentioned in my first post, it has output coupling caps, that's why many owners on the net are changing that cap.
  
If that cap is too small in uF (microfarads) it will roll off the bass too early giving a shallow subdued (cool) bass, increase this cap 3 x in uF and it should fix the problem and give you a deeper stronger bass.

Or my preference is to direct couple, but you need a tech for that. 

Cheers George
randy-11
1,913 posts
 
BTW, there are many different ways to implement ESS series chips, so can't just look at the chip used and say it sounds a particular way.

Then there is the circuit layout, the section of and matching of various discrete components, etc.

all can have effects on SQ - not like a speaker, but something you can hear in a spendy system
shadorne's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
shadorne
7,467 posts
 
Steve,

What is your opinion on the stereophile J-test?

It measures analog out of a DAC to a test signal - so it checks for both incoming and intrinsc jitter.

What do you think of the typical SOTA DACs that have a noise floor at -150dB when tested for jitter?

How can perfect performance be improved upon and what do you look for when testing an asynchronous DAC of this level and how could Synchro-mesh or another cable improve upon perfect?
audioengr
3,282 posts
 

GeorgeHIFI wrote:

As I mentioned in my first post, it has output coupling caps, that's why many owners on the net are changing that cap.
 
If that cap is too small in uF (microfarads) it will roll off the bass too early giving a shallow subdued (cool) bass, increase this cap 3 x in uF and it should fix the problem and give you a deeper stronger bass.

If its 1uFd or more, this should be sufficient for most preamp and amp loads to deliver bass.  No bass roll-off will occur. 

The real issue is the quality and combination of these caps.  For all caps I have tried with my own DAC, one must add a smaller cap in parallel to get the full range out of it.  Highs are ultimately compromised by using larger caps only.  The best names, Duelund, Mundorf and V-Cap all need this.

Steve N.

Empirical Audio


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