Accustic Arts

Dev, there's no doubt that the Dac1-MK4 was a vast improvement over the MK3. When I got the MK4 I was still using a reference transport from Ensemble, that's still a great piece, however when I auditioned the AA Drive1-MK2 every thing got better(transparency, details, soundstage, extension) but in small increments compared with the Ensemble. So, you might have to let the transport break-in awhile to see if there are significant sonic gains compared with your ARC player used as a transport to make the change.

Also, I don't know what digital cable you are using, but regardless what transport you decide on, I highly recommend you listen to a Stealth Sextet cable. I tried a bunch of highly regarded cables and nothing came close to the Sextet when it came to allowing the Acoustic Arts combo sing to total sonic abilities.

Finally, I use the Ensemble Duo Isolink digital transformer with the the AA combo and it improves all sonic factors by around another 10% to 20% in my system. The rest of my system downstream goes through the Running Springs Jaco power conditioner.

This thread seems to be begging to be hijacked ...

Tbg: I recently purchased a Wavelength Cosecant USB DAC. I reached the conclusion, as many around here have, that it no longer makes sense to continue investing in CDPs or CD transports given the decline in this media. I experimented a bit before i settled on this b/c i didn't want to take a step back just for the convenience of a HDD front end. I am happy to report that I blown away by the Cosecant -- and that is even before i convert from a PC to a Mac. It is every bit as resolving as my AA Drive and DAC and, in some respects, it may be more so. Add to that the convenience of having all of my digital music at myfingertips, and i find the Cosecant nothing short of revolutionary.

Dev: Some free, unsolicited advice: if you are going to start a thread, you likely will get better results if you do not harass those who offer you a response. We're not responding to you under oath pursuant to a subpoena; we're voluntarily offering an opinion that you can either take or leave. Questioning the motives of those who do you the favor of responding to your thread is not productive.

I got my AA Dac Mk IV and Drive 1 MkII today. After four hours it is sounding much better than at first. I expect it will be several days before I can make any real conclusions. It is very quiet and has very nice extension at both ends, but the soundstage is what most pleases me. I have the Drive 1 on the Halcyonic active isolation base and the Dac on an Acapella base. I ultimately will try the Dac on the Halcyonics and the Drive on top of it. Not having a drawer transport makes the use of the Walker Talisman more difficult.

Dev. I owned the ARC CD3MKII and used it as a transport for an Audio Logic DAC. I bought the AA transport and dac after having spoken with Teajay about his experience with the units. The AAs are clearly superior for the ARC alone, or as transport for the AL (I thought the ARC/AL combo was an improvement for the player alone). So overall the change in equipment was well worth it. The AA may have limited distribution in US (big in Europe) but it sure is a great piece of digital equipment. Unlike Teajay, I did not compare with DCS,Meitner,Esoteric, etc - but frankly, with stuff this good, I'm satisfied (at least for a while). I'm glad I sold my ARC transport before receiving the AA, because I suspect the ARC is indeed an excellent transport in its own right, and does provide cd player capability should something happen to you DAC. I guess what you are hearing in the signficant superiority of the AA DAC chipset and process prowress, whereas the improvement is not quite so great on the transport side. I suspect, hope, that the AA transport does offer improvement over the ARC feeding its sibling, but in then end I would probably keep the AA transport anyway (if I still had the ARC) since the transport and dac look so darn good together. Well anyway, welcome to the small, but growing AA club.