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DAC Shootout Starts This Weekend

Okay...in another thread I promised to do a side-by-side evaluation of the Audiobyte HydraVox/Zap vs the Rockna Wavelight. Due to the astonishing incompetence of DHL this has been delayed. At the moment, I have a plethora of DACs here and am going to do a broader comparison.

I am going to do a compare of the Rockna Wavelight, Rockna Wavedream Signature, Audiobyte HydraVox/Zap, Chord Hugo 2, Chord Hugo TT2, Bricasti M3, Bricasti M1 Special Edition, Weiss 501 and the internal DAC card for an AVM A 5.2 Integrated amp as a baseline.

For sake of consistency, I am going to use that same AVM integrated amp driving Vivid Kaya 45s. I may branch out and do some listening on other speakers (Verdant Nightshade of Blackthorn and/or Wilson Benesch Vertexes) but want to use the Vivids for every compare as they are the fullest range speakers I have here. For sake of consistency I will use a Chord 2Go/2Yu connected via an Audioquest Diamond USB as a renderer. The only exception is the Hugo 2 which has a 2Go directly attached to it. I will use a Roon Nucleus+ as a server in all cases.

My plan is to use the same five songs on every DAC; In a Sentimental Mood from Duke Ellington and John Coltrane, Be Still My Beating Heart from Sting, Liberty from Anette Askvik, Duende from Bozzio Levin Stevens and Part 1 of Mozart String Quartet No 14 in G Major from the Alban Berg Quartet. The intent is to touch on different music types without going crazy.

I will take extensive notes on each listening session and write up a POV on the strengths of each unit. I am going to start this this Friday/Saturday and will be writing things up over the next month or so. If you have thoughts, comments or requests, I will be happy to try and accommodate. The one thing I am not going to do is make the list of songs longer as that has an exponential impact on this and make everything much harder. If and when other DACs come in on trade I may add to the list through time.
128x128verdantaudio
kw6
691 posts
 
Since you guys are going through the trouble of a huge dac shoot out with interesting dacs. Please build a platform cover where you can't see the dacs. Only one person should be behind the rack to change or do the switching per request of listener. Hopefully output volumes will be closely matched. 
chorus
976 posts
 
Anti,

So a 10m Reference clock in an R2R would be what? The next step?
(trying to learn something, thanks)
verdantaudio's avatar
verdantaudio OP
1,469 posts
 
I have worked my way through a bunch of these courtesy of a wedding shower my wife and daughter had to go through. 
The differences were not subtle and these DACs are very different.  The track Duende in particular proved extremely difficult for many of the DACs to handle. This is going to be my new reference track for all systems. 
There is an opening bass solo as each instrument is introduced. It is so difficult, I was wondering it the amp and speakers were up to the task of reproducing without distortion. Only one DAC handled it well and sounded flawless. 
This was fascinating in that it is a story of trade-offs. You are generally trading immersive soundstage vs detail and if you want both, a nicer unit is essential.

The one compare i haven’t had a chance to do yet is with the Weiss 501 and the Bricasti M1 SE as the Weiss is out on loan.

Across price points, there is no comparison. The AVM and Hugo 2 were competitive between each other but were inferior compared to the Chord TT2/Rockna Wavelight/Audiobyte HydraVox/Bricasti M3 who were all inferior to the Bricastis M1 SE who was inferior to the Rockna Wavedream Signature. 
I am very much looking forward to getting the M21 in to see how it performs vs the Wavedream Signature, along with the Chord Dave and Wavedream Edition.
And then ultimately how the Audiobyte HUB and Chord MScaler impact sound.

I am going to write up the beefy part of this first which is the compare of the four, $4500 - $6000 units. I will say there is no clear winner. There is going to be some pretty clear direction based on what you want in your system.
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verdantaudio's avatar
verdantaudio OP
1,469 posts
 
tvad - let's call it poor phrasing.  A good reminder that I need to be more exact in my language. 

I checked my notes and Duende did not distort on the M3 (it did on others) but it is a bit muddy relative to the M1 SE and Rockna Wavedream.  This I went back and checked several times on all the DACs.  It proved to be one of the most obvious moments among these five songs hat highlight differences between units.  

The portion in question is the bass solo that starts at around 21 seconds with the hardest part to reproduce at about 31 seconds.  This does not sound bad on the M3 and without having the luxury of swapping in the M1 SE and or Rockna Wavedream Signature, you would not know that there is a lack of precision.  
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