I have debated pre vs no pre for two years. I got rid of my Pre when I got my Lampi Pacific and Horizon. I could not hear any loss of sound quality. That said, I did order the Aries Cerat Ianus Ageto Pre. I can't tell you why except at 69 years of age, I basically said why not. You only live once.
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.
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.
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@willgolf Those are two of the DACs on my shortlist of units that are fine without a preamp. I would also say the MSB Reference and Select would fit here, but MSB equips them with a full preamp stage. After that, it is preamps equipped with very good DACs like the AGD Andante or AVM Ovation SD 8.3 that I think are your best buys if you lack a preamp stage in your system. I think the AGD is an insane value when you consider the quality of the DAC and Phono Stage in it. |
@yyzsantabarbara can you expound on what you mean by "buttoned up" and "wild child'? I currently have an OpticalRendu and was wondering how it compares to the Lumin streamers. "The Sonore OpticalRendu is also incredible and is now discontinued until late summer when the new version comes out. The old OpticalRendu sounds more buttoned up compared to the wild child sound of the Lumin X1. Weird way to describe it but once you hear them side-by-side it makes sense. I love the sound of both streamers." |
@topside3 All 3 of my streamers were great. I have not heard the very best feature of the PlayBack Designs Streamer-IF because I do not have a PD DAC to use the PLink feature. However, the SPDIF of the IF sounded a mix in-between the Lumin X1 fibre and my Sonore OpticalRendu. The Lumin X1 is as loud as the IF (just a gain setting I guess). It sounds the fastest on music playback. A real toe tapping experience. I loved the X1 streamer and the features on it are the best of all 3. This was very important when I wanted to stream to SPDIF to my incredible modded Peachtree GAN1. This GAN1 was as good as $20K+ gear with the Lumin X1 via SPDIF. The OpticalRendu wsa not as loud and maybe not as fast sounding. It sounded rather refined to me compared to the other 2. The PD IF was in-between the sonics of the OpticalRendu and the X1. I think if I got the Plink hooked up (in the future) it likely will have the best streaming sound or experience. At the moment I think my OpticalRendu is my fav. Though it is like choosing between chocolate and vanilla, both are very good and a matter of taste. I was surprised that these 3 high end streamers would have such a variety in sound. I have used lower end streamers and they do not compare to the X1 and oR in terms of details and other sonic attributes I value.
Note: I only used the X1 with a fibre input stream |
- 388 posts total