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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
4afsanakhan
134 posts
 
Great idea Verdantaudio. Will follow this enthusiastically.

Antigrunge2, I have to agree. I’ve heard great R2R DACs, and know the sound of the Magicwire DAC in the Devialet Expert Pro, which is based around a Texas Instruments PCM1792 (Delta Sigma topology). I believe that its not so much about the DAC chip in and of itself, but the execution of the supporting architecture and the chip together. Having heard several high-end DACs including R2R and FPGA based DACs, I can confidently state that the Devialet Magic Wire DAC is in the same class. 
mr_m
1,900 posts
 
Is there a preference for R2R Dacs or Delta Sigma and their variants? Or as stated, does it depend on execution of the Dac?
antigrunge2
1,461 posts
 
At the risk of being repetitive: it is much more the implementation of the individual design than the basic architecture (R2R, FPGA, Delta Sigma)that differentiates dacs: i.e. quality of clocking and power supplies( foremost), quality of the noise rejection on digital inputs, design of attenuator (if used as a preamp), presence of op-amps or capacitors in the signal path, direct coupling of output stages and on and on. I very much question the ability to differentiate between the different chip sets, be they TI/Burr Brown, AKM, ESS Sabre et al. in an optimised setting on sound quality. Assuming optimal clock accuracy it is really the differences in the analogue domain that determine dac sound quality.
invalid
1,251 posts
 
+1 antigrunge2
verdantaudio's avatar
verdantaudio OP
1,508 posts
 
Okay...the Wyre4Sound DAC 2V2 SE arrived on trade.  After a little bit of time playing and getting settled, I ran the same test but first a few notes. This DAC has an insane number of settings. 

Unfortunately, they are in a menu that is accessible when the DACs main power is on but the DAC is not running.  This makes making changes more difficult but you have an immense amount of flexibility to fine tune your sound.  

This could take hours and bluntly, I don't have those hours to spend so I made a few tweaks to get the DAC into the system and the thing I found most intriguing was the jitter eliminator though I don't love the net result.  It sounds less like true, proper clocking and more like a DSP correcting for a clocking error which it probably is. 

Soundstage is great.  This blows the Hugo 2 and AVM out of the water in terms of imaging and staging.  Overall, detail was very good.  I puled out the Audiobyte and Hugo 2 as points of comparison.  

Detail in drum rolls are strong but a hair below the DACs in the price class above.  Well below the TT2 or the Audiobyte.  There is a touch of sibilance in Sting's voice and in certain parts of Liberty.  Two or three moments of glare during Liberty that were tough to listen too.  This is likely based on the setting I quickly arrived at.  

Strings were slightly massed in the Berg piece and due to the size of the soundstage, the intimacy was lost.  The opening of Duende was a little bit of a struggle.  It did the job, but not at an elite level. It sounded a little muddy.  

It is priced in the middle between the Audiobyte and the Hugo 2.  Performance is in the middle between the Audiobyte and the Hugo 2. Detail is closer to the Hugo 2 while staging is closer to the Audiobyte.  

At $3800, as a new DAC, it is priced fairly and delivers very good performance if you are wiling to spend the time tweaking in what is not the best user interface.  Used, in the $2k range...this thing is incredible.  
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