sorry - modi dac
Best DAC / Budget
I think this is a gain issue between my analog and digital sides - but I just don't know enough
I hit a wall with the digital side yesterday
I generally listen on the lower side of listening levels
Yesterday I came home and decided to see what this rig could do and put it through it's paces on both the analog and digital side.
I'm playing vinyl on a Nottingham 294 space deck with a 12" tone arm and a Lyra Delos cart - through a EAR 843 tube phono stage - line input on a Rogue Cronus Mark I - KT120 tubes - bypassing the Rogue phono stage. It sounds just completely glorious. I'm very happy with it.
Digital is a different problem. I've always understood this gear was meant as place holders - they got the ball rolling.
I'm streaming from Tidal, through a Pro-Ject Stream Box Ultra 2 (ethernet cat 6 hard wired to a router), through a gifted Schitt Mano 2 DAC.
The Problem:
Analog completely surpasses the digital in every way
Digital - turning up the volume (to very high levels) only seems to result in filling in the low register and not actually increasing the volume.
I'm fully aware I am comparing a DAC to a Deck which costs many times more.
Looking for recommendations for a separate stand alone DAC which complements the analog side and for an idea of budget.
Thanks everyone
I hit a wall with the digital side yesterday
I generally listen on the lower side of listening levels
Yesterday I came home and decided to see what this rig could do and put it through it's paces on both the analog and digital side.
I'm playing vinyl on a Nottingham 294 space deck with a 12" tone arm and a Lyra Delos cart - through a EAR 843 tube phono stage - line input on a Rogue Cronus Mark I - KT120 tubes - bypassing the Rogue phono stage. It sounds just completely glorious. I'm very happy with it.
Digital is a different problem. I've always understood this gear was meant as place holders - they got the ball rolling.
I'm streaming from Tidal, through a Pro-Ject Stream Box Ultra 2 (ethernet cat 6 hard wired to a router), through a gifted Schitt Mano 2 DAC.
The Problem:
Analog completely surpasses the digital in every way
Digital - turning up the volume (to very high levels) only seems to result in filling in the low register and not actually increasing the volume.
I'm fully aware I am comparing a DAC to a Deck which costs many times more.
Looking for recommendations for a separate stand alone DAC which complements the analog side and for an idea of budget.
Thanks everyone
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- 29 posts total
I think it's difficult to get digital to sound as full as analog. I don't know what your budget would be, but the Qutest running off a battery is pretty satisfying. I've also got a Denafrips Pontus II coming which is supposed to be pretty smooth in sound. A Denafrips Ares II was pretty smooth but wasn't detailed enough to sound engaging to me. Perhaps one way to look at digital is the value of streaming. You have thousands of music recordings available at your fingertips. That's been really fulfilling to me to hear new music that I learn about, but would otherwise might never actually get to hear. A couple of suggestions for better digital sound quality. I would do all of these before getting a new DAC as all of these created a noticeable improvement even when using the Denafrips Ares II DAC.
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smaarch1 Get a lower end Soekris discrete R2R ladder dac, and they have volume control, so no pre needed. http://www.soekris.dk/products.html https://soekris.modhouseaudio.com/soekris-audiophile-line Cheers George |
- 29 posts total