Zanden DAC noise problem

Hi Nilthepill,

Great to hear from you. I am glad to hear you still are using your Zanden. You gave me good advice about Zanden...i still have my DAC but have yet to get the Transport.

I have heard there are upgrades available to DAC...have you ever upgraded yours? Was curious what you may know about these upgrades...from vintage 2007. Thanks for any advice!

Have you heard the STahl-Tek Vekian Opus digital?

Ramy,

It sure would be great to have authorized Zanden service centers here in US. It would be highly cost effective. Before I sent my transport to Japan, I did try to contact Brooks Berden here in LA area and they said they could fix my Transport problem and that they have repaired Zanden products in the past. You may want to talk to Brian Berden to check if they could fix your problem. (Unless it is already fixed). If you do pl post the findings and how it was repaired.

Hi Lloyd,
I think last time you or one of my audiogn friend from Netherlands asked me the same question reg DAC upgrade and i checked with my dealer Fred Nadal and he said mine was the latest and greatest. However, I am meeting with h today and ask him again. I am going to audition the new Zanden Integrated amp and audition the Zanden Power cables. I am on my way to install all my cabling from Zanden. I have , so far, installed all i/cs, waiting for speaker cables to be rolled out. I think they are really excellent cables at surprising 'reasonable' pricing. You both should look in to it.

No I have not heard STahl-Tek Vekian digital. Have you? How does it compare with the Zanden Signature DAC?

Hi Nilthepill,

Sounds very interesting! I have spoken with ERic Pheils who said Mitsubishi tested the new Zanden cables and found that with the Safety Wave fabric in it...they had 5db lower noise floor...the guys at Mitsubishi were apparently dumbfounded.

Enjoy!

As for Stahl-Tek...i have heard only the original Vekian 2 years ago. The new Opus is supposedly far better, more organic, better sense of live music in the upper treble.

That said, the Stahl-Tek Vekian is the first digital ever to make me consider trading in my beloved Zanden. I have heard Scarlatti, Emm CDSA, Meridian 808.2i, ARC CD7, CD8, Wadia s7i, Metronome Kalista Ref/C2A...none have tempted me so far.

But as some will be sick of reading...i have been trying to speak with everyone i can think of about Zanden v STahl-tek...until i can get a shoot-out arranged hopefully in about a month's time.

The Stahl-Tek has a Scarlatti-like low noise floor, the ability to keep tempo/pace in complex passages which enables you to totally and easily understand contrapuntal themes which are often lost on other digital playback. I have not heard such effortless delivery of multiple individual themes of music so you can follow each one before.

At the same time, my Zanden is older than yours. I have heard the latest Zanden but not for long enough and not in a direct shoot-out with Stahl-Tek.

But i have spoken to more than a few guys in Asia who owned Zanden and have traded in for stahl-tek. so it does make me think! honestly, i could be very happy with Zanden (as well i should!)...but if i am going to 'double down' and buy a second-hand transport...i may as well be sure about this. STay tuned!...;)

Pls post your findings about Zanden cables when you hear them!!!!!!!!!!

ou my want to try Bill T at Music Technology.com. He has a vast amount of experience with a wide range of gear and was the Product Design engineer at Conrad Johnson for 20 Y.

Thanks for all the responses.I did upgrade my DAC in 2008,and I did get the Zanden cable connecting the DAC and transport repaired at Audio Revelation they did an excellent job.I also purchased from them a5J cable,that cable seems somewhat brighter than the Zanden cable,however it might not be completely broken in.As for repairing the DAC I decided to live with it as the hum is not noticeable at normal listening levels.
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