Nothing like the sound of a diamond tracing a spiral groove in a rotating plastic disk! Those minute undulations are present in the groove walls and are "read" at the molecular level by the stylus! So resolution is theoretically greater than any digital system!
Can you help pinpoint why I am now satisfied with my digital setup?
Why ask why? Bud dry. Right? Why ask if you are satisfied? Just be. Here goes....
I put out a thread recently how I couldn't get my digital to sound good enough to listen for hours on end. It sounded great, but nowhere close to my analog front end. Many users recommended I might try an R2R DAC. While researching those and other solutions, I did the following:
Instead of feeding my Primaluna integrated with the NAD M51 DAC, I ran the NAD M51 analog out in XLR/balanced to a Schitt Freya, then I ran single ended RCA out from the Schitt to the Primaluna. I turned the Schitt preamp volume attenuator to its maximum. Voila! Well, maybe not equal to my vinyl front end, but I can now listen for way longer periods.
The NAD M51 is not what you'd call an overbearing DAC sound. I'd say it's neutral to the warm side of neutral.
I thought the short answer was the improvement is because I'm adding a tube buffer, vis-à-vis the Schitt Freya, to the DAC output signal. But, wasn't I buffering the signal before when I fed the NAD DAC to the Primaluna? Is the improvement due to tubes on tubes (Freya on Primaluna)?
I also note that in the summer when I ran the NAD M51 into the Freya driving an NAD M22 amp I felt nearly the same as I did running the NAD into the Primaluna. Is this just tubes on tubes? I see no other explanation.
I'm a bit fussy so I've been hesitant to say this solved the problem without extensive listening. But now that I'm a week in to this setup, I find it works and think that will remain my long term view.
I put out a thread recently how I couldn't get my digital to sound good enough to listen for hours on end. It sounded great, but nowhere close to my analog front end. Many users recommended I might try an R2R DAC. While researching those and other solutions, I did the following:
Instead of feeding my Primaluna integrated with the NAD M51 DAC, I ran the NAD M51 analog out in XLR/balanced to a Schitt Freya, then I ran single ended RCA out from the Schitt to the Primaluna. I turned the Schitt preamp volume attenuator to its maximum. Voila! Well, maybe not equal to my vinyl front end, but I can now listen for way longer periods.
The NAD M51 is not what you'd call an overbearing DAC sound. I'd say it's neutral to the warm side of neutral.
I thought the short answer was the improvement is because I'm adding a tube buffer, vis-à-vis the Schitt Freya, to the DAC output signal. But, wasn't I buffering the signal before when I fed the NAD DAC to the Primaluna? Is the improvement due to tubes on tubes (Freya on Primaluna)?
I also note that in the summer when I ran the NAD M51 into the Freya driving an NAD M22 amp I felt nearly the same as I did running the NAD into the Primaluna. Is this just tubes on tubes? I see no other explanation.
I'm a bit fussy so I've been hesitant to say this solved the problem without extensive listening. But now that I'm a week in to this setup, I find it works and think that will remain my long term view.
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- 12 posts total
- 12 posts total