If all of your components and cables were chosen for their reputation of being highly detailed the presentation can lean too far in that direction. The leading edges of instruments and vocals are a little over emphasized and sibilance happens. A warmer cable in the mix might eliminate that and restore the balance. WireWorld and Cardas come to mind if you decide to try.The silver coated cable you're using might too much used throughout.
How to proceed?
Removing my Aqua La Voce dac from my system has eliminated fatigue and reduced but not fully eliminated sibilance. Running my Jay’s CDT2MKIII into my Hegel H390’s onboard dac is definitely a more relaxed presentation but tonally leaner than I prefer. Some have suggested I swap out the Hegel, but first I’d like to try another dac.
What I’m unclear about is how to go about choosing another dac that will not duplicate the same drawbacks I’ve experienced with the Aqua. Are there details in the design or specs that can guide me in this regard? I'm unsure how to proceed.
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Resolution has never been a top priority. I don’t mean to be contentious but did you not read through the thread?
My IC and power cables are a mix of copper and silver-plated copper, chosen after finding all copper too dark and all silver too bright. My digital cable was described as having "a very liquid warmth that’s more gold than silver" in an Audio Bacon shoot-out among eleven contenders. I’m not opposed to trying a different cable but I’d be surprised if swapping out a cable would have the same impact that results from removing the Aqua DAC from the system. The same coax BNC is used in both scenarios. When it connects transport to integrated’s internal DAC, fatigue disappears and sibilance is noticeably less exaggerated.
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Hi @stuartk As you may recall, we have the same integrated amp. Having said that, when my very expensive Sony professional CDT died a few years ago, I ended up replacing it with a Audiolab 6000CDT. An Audioquest Carbon digital to a Denafrips Pontus ll and XLR to the H390. And it sounds beautiful. I’m not familiar with your DAC, but were you running it with oversampling? Also, is your room treated with sound absorption? |
@stuartk |
Take a look at my virtual system page and you will see it is not at all optimal for audio. There is a wall of glass on one side, a tiled hearth, glass topped coffee table, etc. WAF disallows any panels. Nevertheless, my previous system (same speakers + dac, with Wells Audio Majestic integrated and Simaudio transport) was not at all fatiguing and there was not a trace of sibilance. The bass was poorly defined/controlled, which eventually drove me nuts and was the primary motivation for acquiring an integrated known for bass control. The Hegel is, needless to say, far more resolving then the tubey-souding Wells and this aspect, coupled with the Jay’s, which similarly delivers more detail than the Simaudio, may be too much of a good thing. DAC is NOS. Thanks for sharing strategies you’ve found to be successful. You are astute in recognizing the ICs are also absent from the scenario with the least sibilance and no fatigue. I’ve heard good things about Zavfino. I don’t recall whether they have a return policy. Ditto Triode Labs. I know Jaguar does. One dac that interests me is Border Patrol, which is very much designed with particular attention to power implementation. I don't believe you mentioned your choice of digital cable. |
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