I haven't found many reviews of the Reuss so will be interested to hear your impressions of how it sounds once the bugs are ironed out.
New DAC issues
I have been on a steady system upgrade path over the last year and one of the last pieces to be updated is my DAC, a Schiit Gungnir Multibit. I have no complaints with it, but I am always in search of more and better. The majority of my upgrades have been a big success.
I recently purchased a new DAC that shall remain unnamed, I don't want to throw it and the builder under the bus, but it is about a 5x multiple in cost over the Gungnir. I have had the new DAC for four days now, and I have been playing it continuously. When I installed it, I simply unplugged the other DAC and substituted this one, so minimal change. Initial impressions were that it sounded pretty lean and the soundstage was not great, but I figured it would sound better after warming up. There has been some improvement, but it is not significant.
Playing music with the Gungnir in place, bass was plentiful without being overbearing, and very clean. With the new DAC, bass is almost an afterthought. The Gungnir presented a beautiful soundstage and my speakers disappeared. The new DAC presents a good center image, though smaller than the Gungnir, and the speakers are pretty apparent on most tracks. In general, the magic is gone from the music, there is detail in the mids and highs, but not a lot of life.
I expected a different sound of course, but I cannot imagine that this is the way a DAC at this level is supposed to sound. I think that the Gungnir is considered a warmer DAC, but the contrast in this case is extreme. I am wondering if there is either an issue with the unit or somehow a mismatch with my gear. It provides a 3V output vs the Gungnir's 4V, which may make it a little less lively, but 3V is not out of the ordinary.
The rest of my systems is Pass XP-12 -> Coda #8 -> KEF Reference 1. I am in between streamers right now and using my DigiOne/Pi with LPS over RCA SP/DIF. One could question the streamer, but it sounds great with the Gungnir. I had an Aurender N10, but I did not get along with the Conductor software and now have an Innuos Zenith on the way. Connections are all balanced with Wireworld Eclipse 8's, Acoustic Zen speaker cables and an Acoustic Zen digital cable. Power is dedicated and runs through a Furman Elite 20.
I listen mostly to jazz and lower levels and I have always had a full sound, however with the new DAC the system is no longer engaging. Thoughts? Can a DAC just be incredibly lean?
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@dz13 Thanks for sharing your experience with the T+A DAC200. I am in the process of looking for a new DAC, and a used T+A 200 is as high as I am willing to go price wise - lower would be better :) Seems like everyone online claims you can't go wrong with the T+A 200, yet I am finding out that high praise and/or high price are no guarantee that a given component will sound good to our ears in our system and room. |
@zlone, the first couple of things that jumped out at me when I looked up the Merason Reuss DAC was that it uses an Amanero based USB technology with two Burr Brown 1794A converter modules. I purposely bypass using the Amanero USB input on my Chord DAC because to me using the BNC inputs sounds a whole lot better. It’s nice that the unit has its own purpose built-in power supplies, and it also looks well made as most electronics from Switzerland tend to be. I’ve just never been a fan of the sound of Burr Brown chip based digital audio converters that I’ve listened to in the past. |
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What input to use on the DAC depends on the transport/streamer clock quality. In example, if you are using a streamer with high quality clock such as OCXO, then AES or SPDIF would most likely sound better than USB. But if you have a streamer optimized for USB, you will be using the clock that’s in the DAC and if that sucks, you’re out of luck. When you get your new streamer try both the USB and the AES. |
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