Absolute top tier DAC for standard res Redbook CD

'OK, let the criticism begin!!! lol....'

I muck around with, listen to, and have heard a lot of DAC's.

There is no right or wrong, simply what suits you and your system best.

My favourite DAC (at the moment - things change fast in the DAC area) is a hand build DAC called a Killer. But it is very musical and that is not everyone's preference - some are in my camp - others prefer say the extremely clear, clean, and pure Phasure which I find a bit bland.

A DAC that impressed me recently was the PS Audio - it blew my Chord out of the water - but it was a lot more expensive so that's not an earth shattering revelation - you would hope you get something for the extra dosh. It is going to be upgraded to the Direct Stream soon and we will be having a GTG to see how it fares against some of my other DAC's such as the Playback Designs and Killer.

Always a lot of fun.

Anyway by checking them out and posting about it you are doing the right thing. Keep up the good work.

Thanks
Bill

Jafox,

Calling the Sylvania VT-99 trash is really crazy, unless your system has to have one particular tube to shine. I settled on the National Union VT-99 in combination with the staggered Tung-Sol rectifier because the overall sound had better extension and treble. But to say the Sylvania is flat and distant is super surprising, but that very well be the case in your system. In mine the Sylvania sounds great, a bit more chill but still damn fine and 3D sounding. The Tung-Sol VT-99 has a more 3D/holographic presentation and just as extended than the Nationals in my system, but is a bit lean in the mid-range. To my ears, all the VT-99's I tried were pretty darn good in the Big Six, none of them were "trash". The rectifiers make a contribution to the sound as well so Matt should try that too.

Goes to show you how differently we all hear...

Matt,

Sounds like the Big Six sounds more effortless at this point than the Aeris. Though constriction is often times cured with further break-in. The Big Six needed lots of time to open up, at least in my system. But it sounded "natural" right off the bat.

Interesting results so far, keep it coming...

Is the heavyweight champion Empirical DAC next in line?

4orreal, I think the Phasure tends to get excluded due to its cumbersome setup requirements. Also, did you see the recent computer audiophile shootout. It was bested by the Killer dac and PBD depending on the listener....

Hifial, I thought you were a Phasure convert. Is it Meitner now? Bruce Brown re-reviewed a current DSD Lampi with Duelund caps (versus the cheap Russians that were in the original unit), and he said its the best DSD he has heard. He has had both the Meitner and Phasure in-house.

Hi Charles and JaFox, my long break-in opinions are based on a break-in tracking spreadsheet correlated with a dated break-in log that I kept during listening sessions throughout the process... I largely applied the same test track that I tend to report on for published articles. As pointed out, memory of past events by itself is unreliable.

Between the 450 and 800 hours mark, the last remenents of treble peakiness and transient stresses in Aeris disappeared, while harmonic coherence, extension, imaging/staging, and overall musicality continue to grow.

G.