Six DAC Comparison

stuartk,

Good background.  I don't know where you live, but for decades in NY, radio station WQXR has had the classical countdown before New Years Day, starting about 1 week before, from about 8 AM to midnight.  It was the top 100, but then it became the top 105 when the NY Times owner dropped WQXR, and it went public on 105.9 FM.  You can now listen online.  No. 1 is always Beethoven's Ninth.  No 2 is either Beethoven's Fifth or Dvorak's New World Symphony.  This is an excellent way to re-introduce you to the great classics.  Lately, the list has included smaller scale chamber music.  Small scale chamber music is my favorite, because there is only 1 player on a part compared to orchestra where there are as many as 16 players on 1st violin, 14 players on 2nd violin.  I dislike the chorus effect of many players on a part, which creates sonic smear.  You can appreciate more nuances if there is only 1 player on a part.  Of course, there is less loudness, but in return you get more subtle varied dynamics and of course more overall detail.

Enjoy.

Michael Lavorgna has reviewed Tambaqui, Holo KTE May and Totaldac.

My impression was that he found his Totaldac DAC to sound more realistic than the 

other two; and that he preferred the Tambaqui  to the Holo KTE May. 

I’ve owned the Holo for a couple of years and love it!

It’s all about taste , some like a rich tubyness ,

some like every razer sharp detail., a lot has to do with your other equipment  also.

@rfagon

Michael Lavorgna has reviewed Tambaqui, Holo KTE May and Totaldac. My impression was that he found his Totaldac DAC to sound more realistic than the other two; and that he preferred the Tambaqui to the Holo KTE May.

@audioman58 makes an excellent point. Lavorgna favors tube amplification, so it makes sense that he might also favor a more neutral sounding DAC.

@viber6

Thanks for the suggestions. FYI, I grew up in the lower Hudson valley but now reside in N. CA.

@rfagon - I agree with your assessment of Michael Lavorgna’s reviews of those three highly regarded DACs. I was also interested in reading his perspectives as a single reviewer listening to all three DACs in a single system. His preferences lean towards the totaldac house sound, which he describes as musical, dimensional, natural, and “startlingly present,” instead of solely looking for the best measuring, highest resolution DAC.

Lavorgna uses the word “’crystalline’…to describe the sound of the KTE May DAC” and discusses how it is best paired with amplifiers that present a “softer and more dimensional sound”, and not with highly revealing/resolving amplifiers. As with the May, he advises against pairing the Tambaqui with highly resolving amplifiers such as Ayre’s EX-8 saying, “the Ayre / Mola Mola combination offered a bit too much of a good thing in terms of resolution and clarity where music could adopt a hardness that I found distracting.”

Livorgna says, “The Mola Mola Tambaqui and the Holo KTE May DAC are more closely related, nearly sounding like brothers.” In addition to being resolving and displaying crystalline clarity, the Tambaqui and Holo May brothers both exhibit excellent measurements, while the totaldac house sound that he likes so much comes from a DAC that apparently doesn’t measure well. The measurements of the totaldac d1-six reviewed by ASR were so bad that Amir Majidimehr said, “I don’t think we have ever seen anything as broken as this.”

This seems to bring us full circle to the adage that what measures well doesn’t necessarily sound good to everyone, and the converse about what measures poorly. IOW, regardless of how something measures, you need to listen for yourself. The Tambaqui certainly has its fans but, in a direct comparison, I preferred the sound of my Mojo Audio DACs over the Tambaqui. I respect the accuracy, power, resolution, and musicality of the Tambaqui but, to me, the Mojo DACs sound richer and more natural, which are traits I appreciate and enjoy. However, like the totaldac, the Mystique X SE also doesn’t measure that well, at least according to John Atkinson at Stereophile.

I have been enjoying the Merason DAC1 MkII here, which uses a hybrid chip, but I have no idea about how it measures since I haven’t seen a review of the Merason with measurements. However, as with Michael Lavorgna and his totaldacs, I keep coming back to the sound of my two Mojo Audio DACs as being more natural, even if they are perhaps not quite as refined sounding as the Merason or as well-measuring as the Tambaqui. Here is an interesting write-up about the different DAC levels in the Mojo Audio Mystique X line, as you progress from the Mystique X, to the X SE, and then to the X SE NCZ version that I currently have here.