It sounds like you’ve had an incredible experience. Thanks for sharing!
Absolutely comprehensive list of previous DACs I’ve owned in general ranked order prior to getting this DAC:
Topping D90 III Discrete
Denafrips Ares II
Musician Draco
Topping E70 Velvet
HiBy R6 Pro II (simultaneously as streamer and as DAC)
FiiO K11 R2R
Cayin RU7
Cayin RU6
SMSL DO100
WiiM Ultra (simultaneously as streamer and as DAC)
Hidizs S9 Pro Plus Martha
Hidizs S9 Pro
Up until recently, I felt the D90 III Discrete was tops under $1,000. After adding it to my system, I was convinced that a proper 1-bit DAC is as good as it gets (the RU7 is decent, but nowhere close to the D90 III Discrete, almost certainly due to all of the compromises made for it to be compact, portable, and able to run off cell phone power), especially with DSD recordings (which is only a very small portion of my actual listening, at the end of the day). Well, after buying the WiiM Ultra streamer, which converts all DSD to PCM anyway, I decided to return the D90 III Discrete (thanks for the amazing service, Apos!!!) and switch back to the E70 Velvet since everything I was now decoding is PCM and the 1-bit DAC no longer had the same benefits given the cost. I had heard all along that the implementation is more important than the chip, and SparkoS had a 30% off sale, so I decided to go ahead and test that theory by buying the JNOG3 and equipping it with the vaunted SS2590 op-amps. Would it prove to be better than the E70 Velvet, which uses the same delta-sigma chip?
Yes. Oh yes. In fact, I didn’t even receive my upgraded power supply yet (not sure when Teddy Pardo will get my Mini Teddy SE to me from Israel), but I literally didn’t even know my system could sound this good. The soundstage depth and layering are just so holographic now, stunningly holographic, we’re talking better than when I had a Schiit Freya+ preamp in my chain with Linlai E-6SN7 tubes holographic, with even greater air from instruments (like cymbals) and detail extraction than the E70 Velvet while still being so smooth and completely un-fatiguing to listen to. The notes now have this incredible roundness to them, with soft sounds being softer, yet hard sounds attacking harder. The texture, oh the texture…I can sense the strings vibrating inside the piano now on recordings like Dave Brubeck’s Take Five.
The JNOG3 with SS2590s is, at least for me, finally an end-game DAC. Can’t wait to see what effect the Teddy Pardo power supply has (if any…I don’t just believe everything has an effect or benefit, one has to truly be critical when listening critically, especially when an item costs this much, need to be honest and return for refund if it doesn’t deliver as promised) when it comes in.
-Ed