Digital Audio Denmark convertors

i have had both the Digital Audio Denmark in my system and the Berkeley too.

the Denmark was in my system last spring when Crna39 (the poster 4 posts above this post) was in my room doing a recording for FIM off my Rockport tt. there was also a Pacific Microsonics Model 2 hi-rez dac being used. we did multiple tests and playback comparing my tt to these sources over a 12 hour period.

the very next week i took delivery of my Playback Designs MPS-5.

neither of these professional DAC's came close to the MPS-5 in performance using the performance of my Rockport as the common reference. the Playback Designs comes closer to sounding completely natural and life-like than the Denmark. not to say that the Digital Audio Denmark is not a fine sounding DAC in it's own right.

obviously; Crna39 owns these products and listens to them daily in his work and you can read his opinion.

a few weeks later i was given a Berkeley to compare to the MPS-5; same result. Again, the Berkeley is certainly a fine sounding DAC but not at the Playback Designs level. i did only compare redbook when i had the Berkeley.

these are just my opinions based on my listening in my system to these products.

And NO ONE talks about the playback software used, nor what types (or resolution) of files played back. Sonic differences in playback software are vast. It's not all about "the gear", although all of us have been conditioned to that paradigm over many years. If iTunes was being used as the playback software during these comparisons noted above, I would be highly suspect about the results....iTunes sounds like cardboard in comparison to better pro software suites.

Gentlemen?

hi Alan,

for the Denmark in my system it was mostly hi-rez 'just recorded' files from the hard-drive that was being used to store the recordings off my Rockport. these were played back and then directly compared to the Rockport played straight.

then a week later i compared my impressions of how the Playback Designs sounded on redbook and SACD to the Rockport played straight.

the Playback Designs was closer to the naturalness and overall musical involvement of the Rockport.

as i mentioned; i just used Redbook for the Berkeley comparison.

Were any of these auditions of the Digital Audio Denmark AX24 done at the 2X DSD sample rate, 5.6MHz? I believe that the AX24 is without peers and I'm not alone as it was chosen as the reference DSD converter at Telarc International records & music studios, Sennheiser, Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR), Dex Mastering, DPA Microphones, and by the Danish Philharmonics to name a few. Perhaps the opinion of Michael Bishop and these other professional users and entities, who can afford to buy any piece of equipment in the world, carry more weight than that of Mike Lavigne, Bruce Brown or myself! Personally, I have owned and used the AX24 for almost three (3) years and I have yet to find or hear anything that sounds better, gives you more resolution or sounds more refined; and that same statement goes for my reference playback system as well. Perhaps the true test is to test one of these systems with a Playback Designs MPS-5 against my own as they may not have enough resolution to truly appreciate the extend of the Digital Audio Denmark AX24's superior performance nor the limitations of the Playback Designs MPS-5. It would be nice to swap the MPS-5 for the AX24 in my reference system and hear and report my observations. Just a thought and again, my doors are always open for such comparisons as my reference system has yet to lose a single challenge!

Yes, Mike, but what was the playback software used for the "mostly hi-rez" files, and/or your Redbook comparison?