I really think this is all barking up the wrong tree. Instead of spending 25-40K that may or may not work, spend $500-1000 to start for an acoustic engineer/technician to come to your house and measure your room / system. Without a baseline to know if your system is a bit bright of not, you are just throwing darts. An experienced set of ears may pick up on the flaw you hear, but cannot clearly identify the cause for. Just basic windows software on a PC can do equalization with absolutely no distortion. I am listening with headphones <0.01% distortion at high volume. That is lower than your DAC. All the equalization does is change the tonal balance. No distortion.
Which DACs are known to be sweet/rich/relaxed?
Problem
System is nicely transparant and detailed, but tends to get bright and harsh with certain (rock) recordings and at higher volume levels.
Objective
Nudge the system towards a sweeter, richer, more relaxed presentation.
Proposed solution / first step
Upgrade to a (tube based) DAC, budget $25-40k.
Current chain
- ROON Nucleus
- Mola Mola Tambaqui
- Gryphon Essence pre amp
- Gryphon Essence monoblocks
- Focal Stella Utopia EVO
- Full loom of Triode Wire Labs cables
- Dedicated power line straight into Puritan PSM156 mains filter
- System resides in the living room with some diffusors but no absorption other than sofas, chairs, and some rugs.
On my radar
Lampizator Pacific (or Golden Gate 2 since I heard it's more "tube-like")
Aries Cerat Kassandra 2 Ref or Sig
— What other DACs should I consider?
— Do you think upgrading to another (tube based) DAC will achieve that sweeter, richer, more relaxed presentation?
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hello op we have a ton of experience with Roon as well as other servers and streamers. First We were aureder dealers then an innous dealer the Innous sounded far better we tested sotm lumin and many others. The Stereophile comment is very wrong the statement sounds far better if you are using usb and yes demoed that way the difference is very audible via ethernet there would be no difference.
fast forward we found a thread New to the forum: high end music server with Roon Core and 3 x dedicated linear power supplies | What’s Best Audio and Video Forum. The Best High End Audio Forum on the planet! (whatsbestforum.com)
the poster found the 5k 432evo Aeon sounded nearly as good as theese 10k euro servers
The Aeon has a very rich and Musical presentation. and we have compared it to the nucleus and the Aeon sounds far better. may/ june Absolute Sound Andrew Quint reviewed 432Evo Aeon and found the Aeon to be best sounding server I have heard. in fact he purchased the sample.. as per dacs the Aqua hifi dacs are very musical and are fully modular and upgrad able as they are ladder dacs they are very smooth and natural sounding.
Dave and Troy Audio intellect nj US importer 432Evo music servers AQua hifi rdealer focal dealer
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I'm totally onboard with verdantaudio, Antipodes is very nice, they know how to optimize both ports and power supplies, K50 would be my first choice for off the shelf not insanely priced servers, K40 or 41 for running another brand streamer. And yes to running Roon with core on server, endpoint on streamer. |
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