Digital Audio Denmark convertors

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?

Alan,

three pro audio guys were recording off my tt into two different hi-rez recording chains. i'm not sure the exact software they were using to store the file. i'm not into such things. Bruce-Cma39-could tell us.

for the Berkeley we just used a CD played on the Playback Designs used as a transport into the Berkeley.

First of all... I am a mastering engineer and use all of these converters everyday. I have also tested the dCS, Lavry, Prisim and Grimm. We do recording/mastering for First Impression Music, HDTracks, PentaTone and Naxos.
We CAN afford any converter made. We have 6 here in the studio. ( www.pugetsoundstudios.com) We even took the DAD converter to Tokyo and recorded the Yamamoto Trio in DXD.(http://www.elusivedisc.com/prodinfo.asp?number=FIMDX079C)
There is no editing software what will support DSD128fs, period. The only thing that will record at DSD128fs is the Korg MR-1000/2000S and you can't use outboard converters. We use the Pyramix DSD/DXD mastering software.
Michael Bishop also uses the EMM Labs professional converters, as do we. The consensus of our auditioning as well as several others in the "professional" arena, says the Playback Designs MPS-5 is the best sounding DAC made. Now.. if we could only get Andreas to include an A to D converter!!!! ???????????