Accustic Arts


Does anybody have any experience with the new Drive 1-MK2 and the DAC 1-MK4? Your opinions please.

Thanks
docmark
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.

Teajay thanks you for the info. I am using Stealth Sextet digital, my favourite. You are correct I do need to give the Drive time to break-in I have just been spoiled by the Dac. Regarding the conditioners you are using thanks for clarifying.

Jeffreybowman2k, firstly I did not start this thread as you have stated, secondly I was not trying to harass anyone so you are obviously very confused and need to review before you make such a allegations.

I love opinions of others but you need to get your facts straight.

Enjoy I am.
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.

Hi Pubul57 Thanks for the info. I just sold my ARC3 MK2 the other night when I put it back in my system for the guy to listen to I could not believe the difference.
The "AA" is in a whole different league, well I suppose the ARC was really a good player for it's time.

Teajay it doesn't look like I am going to get that Oracle to demo in my system so today I decided to just order one. I went with the 2000 transport because that is what I'm after, it has the Philips CD PRO 2 laser drive which is suppose to be very good.

Soon I will be getting my VD Genesis speaker cables and Supratek pre amp. and Sistrum Audio stand and amp and speaker stands and should be fun.

I referred the Indra cables to some one I know to try in his system and he said so far that he is not impressed. He said that they sound clinical in comparison to VD Masters and Revelation series. I was shocked to hear this, I suggested that he should contact Stealth with his serial numbers on the cables to confirm that they are the latest version because he bought it used and could be an older version.

He wants to trade so I was very interested but unfortunately they are rca to rca and I run balanced configuration darn it.

I have not heard anyone say this who has used Indra, any thoughts?

Regarding the AA dac, I spoke to some one today, the same guy who has the Oracle 2000 and AA dac MK4 he said that he has double roller blocks underneath the dac and really likes the result, ever tried it?

The Sistrum stands that I have coming will be really interesting. The same guy who is not sure of the Indra cable bought the Sistrum SP-101's and put them under his JM-Lab Nova BE speakers and said that he noticed a large improvement over all and is really impressed.