Is DEQX a game changer?

Bruce & Lloyd,

A couple of comments that were made earlier by some of the experienced DEQX users who have been making outstanding contributions to the thread:

08-28-14: Drewan77
DEQX is also an excellent preamp, completely neutral and very analogue sounding to my ears (I play a lot of vinyl) and also contains very good DACs (only bettered by a new Graham Slee product called the Majestic. I had previously used a Chord 64 and the DEQX DAC was much more musical, the Slee even more so).

08-28-14: Psag
Another amazing aspect is that the preamp section is utterly transparent, to my ear, with an analog source.
[Although Psag noted on 9-18 that "For CD and vinyl, I continue to use my tubed preamp."]

09-17-14: Drewan77
I used to use DEQX for both analogue/digital, now only analogue (although it contains an excellent DAC, I now use something even better). The two analogue inputs are configured as below

1) RCA Phono analogue input: Turntable/phono amp
2) XLR Balanced analogue input: balanced connection to Graham Slee Majestic DAC/preamp. This has an analogue input that I use for SACD/second TT, plus multiple digital inputs (coax, optical, USB) for the CD transport/digital streamer/laptop etc.

I also use the DEQX analogue volume control. Overall there is no trace of anything 'digital' in the sound I hear which is a testament to the smoothness of the DEQX processor. You have to hear it to believe me of course!

Having reviewed the information provided at the DEQX site pretty thoroughly, I see no reason whatsoever to question their observations, putting aside dogmatic biases some may have against the A/D conversion which the DEQX performs internally when provided with an analog input.

What happens to my ARC Ref 5 SE???

That was the point to the question in my previous post. Based on everything that has been said in this thread, and on the info provided at the DEQX site, it seems to me to be highly conceivable that you may get results that are as good or better with it removed from the system than you are now getting with it in the system, albeit perhaps with some slight further tweaking of the DEQX settings.

In which case you could sell the ARC preamp and perhaps more than recover the amount you paid for the DEQX.

Best regards,
-- Al

Al, you and I are both old enough to know that some questions are best not asked. I'm "freeze tagging" on the DEQX's analogue functionality viz my phono. The thought that my Ref 5 SE could be an irrelevant artifact is too difficult to bear.

I had the same reaction when Excel/Lotis spreadsheet software obsoleted 14 column spreadsheet paper. To this day, I refuse to use Excel. I ask the kids to run my spreadsheets when I need that work done. I love my 14 column spreadsheets, white vinyl eraser and Pentel .5mm mechanical pencil. Even to this day, nobody can run a "10-key" faster than me.

Very interesting to hear the DAC function sounds at least as good as the ARC Ref CD 8--impressive! And it seems the preamp function is excellent as well. Do we have another OPPO here? Great usefulness and great value?

I have both digital and analogue sources going to the DEQX model HDP4.The digital sources run directly to the DEQX, and the analogue sources pass through a conventional preamp before going to the DEQX. There is really no reason to use a conventional preamp in addition to the HDP4 model, other than the increased number of inputs it affords. The preamp section in the HDP4 is of a very high quality, as are the A/D and D/A convertors.

For those who would contemplate learning how to do the calibrations themselves, make sure you have a lot of free time.

Quote: "Al, you and I are both old enough to know that some questions are best not asked. I'm "freeze tagging" on the DEQX's analogue functionality viz my phono. The thought that my Ref 5 SE could be an irrelevant artifact is too difficult to bear"

I am nearly 60 and although I also have around 4000 CDs, a few dozen SACDs and (at last count) around 54,000 (!?) mostly FLAC digital files (Rock, Hard Rock, Blues, Folk, Indie, Electronic, Folk) I still prefer Vinyl through my DEQX - 2 TTs via phono amps. 3 very fine preamps are now in other rooms or unused and will never be in the main system again