Yamamoto YDA 01 DAC

Very very interesting Charles....
I would have gone with the Total if I had the opportunity to listen to it before buying. Did you notice that Srajan mentioned couple of times that the Metrum tone is darker and richer. Now that sometimes makes me nervous because tonally darker and richer many a times means change of timber towards the lush side. If you would have read, many romantic speakers (JMR, Spendor, Harbeth) are termed as richer and darker sounding, but to me they color the timber to the thicker and darker side. I just hope that is not the case with Metrum.

Anyway, from your explanation of the YDA01 I can see that you too recognize timbral accuracy well so I will take your word on the Metrum when you have it. Please do inform me when you get the DAC. BTW, I read that there is a waiting period for the Metrum DAC. When are you expecting it to come ?

Charles, have you listened to the Lavry Gold DAC ? It is also a highly regarded NOS DAC but the implementation is totally their own.

Pani I`ve not heard the Lavry Gold. I must admit the brilliant approach taken with the Metrum is quite exciting to me. I `ve been reading Srajan`s reviews for a long while and by now can sense when he finds a component`s performance exceptonal. He`s very descriptive and clear with his choice of words, If he felt this DAC too dark and or colored, he`d simply say so(he finds the tone natural and realistic, no digital artifacts). The Metrum is a blue moon recipient(as was the YDA-01,but we`re 3 years down the road from that now, things can and do get better).

I`ll put it this way, it you got the YDA-01 I`m convinced you`d love it. My hunch is however given the praise of the Metrum it has taken what the very fine(Yamamoto) does to the next level up.

Yes the wait time is 8-12 weeks( small company, hand built DAC, increased demand now) I`m patient, and the Yamamoto still sounds beautiful.

This is interesting. I wonder how the Yamamoto would stack up now that there is "state of the art" USB-SPDIF converters like the Stello U3. Feed the Yamamoto a near-perfect digital signal and let it use just its converter and discrete analog circuits.

I have Srajan's "other" DAC- the Burson 160-D- waiting to see how he compares it to the Metrum.

All300b,
Go to 6 moons.com letters page and scroll down to the recent corespodence. A reader asked this very question. Srajan said the Burson160D review is`nt quite finished but right now he prefers the Metrum Octave. Note worthy due to his very high regard for Burson against more expensive competitors. Also see comments on the last page of the Aries Cerat Gladius speaker review in the current issue.There additional comments concerning DACs. See his current April Music U3 review where 4 DACs are compared using the U3.