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Not sure if any of you have seen this, but this unit looks pretty darn nice! They have built a reference audio section in it as well. It has been reviewing really well on the AVS forum. PQ and SQ rated equally well. The price isn't too bad either compared to the Sony and Denon TOTL. Link Here

Hello, I currently have this setup: PC > Keces 151 > WA3+ > DT990 The 151 and WA3+ sound good, but when I turn the volume all the way up on the WA3+ with no music playing, I hear a very feint FM radio interference. The other night I was hearing Kelly Clarkson Most noticeable are drums. I never hear this interference except at full volume, I've never actually heard it during real listening, but I can't help but think its degrading the signal still. It's definitely coming through the USB. If I turn off my PC, turn off or unplug the DAC, the radio noise is gone. If I skip the DAC and go from the PC's mini-stereo out to RCA theres no radio noi…

This looks interesting: [url=http://www.kj-pub.com/productshopxp.asp?id=647]QA-550 WAV

So has anyone heard this goddamn thing yet? Doesn't seem to be much out there about it except the usual oohs and aahs.

Ok, so we all know that I'm DACrazy. I recently purchased a Dodson DA-217 MK II D, which is a vintage '90s DAC. I have yet to see a bad review of the unit, but there also is not a tremendous amount written about it. Also, the designer is dead. Regardless, after 1 hour, I can say that this DAC sounds pretty damn good. As many of you know, I have been very much in love with my ECD-1. Well, the Dodson may be better. I have a lot more listening to do, and I will post some internals here. But I think this is a pretty promising find. Oh, and I'm fully willing to admit this could be placebo...

So I've been researching a problem I've had for a while now. Mostly since I switched to the Denon DL-110 cartridge I've been encountering groove echo. It hits between tracks, or during quiet parts, and I'll hear a faint echo just before the sound hits (one revolution before, to be exact). It also tends to be a faint echo on the right side, even if the actual music is shifted more to the left. I have never heard a post-echo but can assume that they are present but being masked by the music. My copy of Keith Jarrett's Koln Concert is especially annoying, since there are so many pauses followed by a quick stab of piano. I've also heard it strongly before The Rolling Ston…

I tried one of these on a lark. It looked like it would work on my Regas, with their teenie weenie stubby little spindles. My really old Planar 3's spindle was too short even for this gizmo. But my merely old one accepts the thing just fine. Amazingly, it actually works. It ain't no Sota Reflex Clamp but it does help bass and image focus. It costs $29 and works on spindle-challenged tables, so what's not to love? (If you haven't seen one, it's a little clear plastic saucer that looks like it just escaped from under a cup of cafe Cubano, or maybe from being the lid for a cat food tin. I'm sure most of the 29 bucks goes to paying off the mold. I don't see mu…

Despite the low price this looks interesting. Those HF-ers will probably be all over this one given its price. Can anyone provide some insight on the selection of parts? Stereophile: Oh Nose, Not Another One! "The Music Hall dac25.2 ($600) uses an Electro-Harmonix 6922 tube, a Texas Instruments PCM1796 24-bi/192kHz DAC chip, a TI SRC4192 Asynchronous sample-rate converter (with a high-precision active crystal oscillator master clock), and four digital inputs (S/PDIF, TOSLINK, XLR, and USB). It sports re-clocking and user-adjustable upsampling (96kHz or 192kHz). It outputs analog via XLR or RCA."

Considering how awesome the 2 channel EHHA amp is and how cheap the kits are I have been considering going balanced (if balanced actually sounds better, seems to be differing opines on this) what is a decent balanced USB (pc only) DAC that is cheap as dog poo? The Gamma 2 with mods will do it but we still don't have a price or date on that yet and the Buffalo is over what I can afford. Would a balanced opus with a USB receiver do well enough? I've never heard a balanced rig so I don't know if they're worth the extra or not.

Well, I finally got my last piece of gear yesterday: the Phonomena II. I had it sent to my parents' house since I'm hardly ever home to receive stuff. I will pick it up today (ordered it along with new inner sleeves for LP's - no point washing if I put them back in the old ones). I will also compare it with the highly-regarded as bang-for-buck CA 640P (which I got a good deal on in Audiogon). The 640P wasn't a planned purchase, but I read it is a good piece of gear. We'll see how the Phonomena II (at $600 new) does against it. Not to mention there are two cartridges in the house now (used MC cartridge ZYX Bloom and new MM cartridge AT150mlx). I won't begin any test…

I was told that the Bel Canto USB Link 24/96 was made to allow 24/96 type files to be put out via the computers USB and received via the coax of their USB 24/96 DAC so that people could overcome the limitations of their (and most DACs USBs) to receive anything over 16/44.1 , I was impressed that someone could spend so much money on their DAC and still not have a simple solution for this issue without blowing an extra $500.Before looking into this I just thought that if a USB DAC said 24/96 then that's what you would be getting via the USB.If I'm not mistaken Wavelength DACs deal with this issue without the use of a USB to coax converter just over the USB,does anyone here …

I'm thinking about getting a used OMZ DAC v4 Where does it rank in the DAC world? I'm not familiar with this hobby and just getting started.

I'm considering a Transporter as a source upgrade in the not so near future and I was just wondering if anyone here has heard the Modwright modded Transporter? Dan Wright sent one to CanJam but I didn't get a chance to really listen to it. I did play around with Grahame's stock Transporter and liked it but wasn't sure if it was playing by itself or if it was hooked up to Al's Amarra. Any opinion or impressions would be greatly appreciated!

I finally got my amp back and running, so I'm going to start posting my impressions of my new CD player. I still have my Panasonic SL-S160 PCDP as a reference, but I'll probably stop making comparisons after a while. Before I mention anything else though, I noticed the output power is much higher than my Panasonic's - this is logical because of the differences between portable and home players' power supplies and output sections. Anyway, the Arcam sounds much louder at the same level on the volume dial - I'll probably have to turn it down when I listen for longer periods. I've only listened to the first three tracks of Jane Monheit's Taking a Chance on Love on both pla…

Introduction When I put my money down for a Berkeley Alpha DAC, I learned about a piece of software called Amarra that allegedly improved the performance of computer audio playback. I believe this was at CanJam along with the Berkeley Alpha but at the time, I dismissed it as a custom skin for iTunes since I didn't know what it was then. Naturally, I was skeptical since everything I've read online indicates that bit perfect audio is easily possible with freeware on both Mac and PC platforms. I didn't see why or how you could squeeze more performance past this or why it has to be Mac OS X exclusive; a quick survey of the internet reveals that many share similar misgiv…

Yesterday, while I was browsing el Craigslist and a****gon I stumbled upon an EAD DSP-7000 mk.II DAC and was intrigued. So, I deciding to go doping panda, PI. From what little information I could gather, EAD had three lines of DACs: the DSP-1000, the DSP-7000, and the DSP-9000. The DSP-7000 was the original product while the DSP-1000 was an economy version of the 7k and the DSP-9000 seemed to be a more different than the other two. Each line has had several revisions with the DSP-1000 and the DSP-7000 both having three revisions while 9000 has an unknown number of revisions(to me at least). The first series had a CS8412-CP EP, 2x AD1862N-J, NPC SM5813APT, and some propri…

Just posting an observation I've made with digital transports. I'm sure jitter plays some part in why some sound different from others. But something else I've noticed lately is that the output signal level from a digital transport also seems to make a difference with regards to sound quality. I noticed this recently since I have a few DACs right now in the house, all with varying analog output levels. Ranging from 2- 3.5 vrms through the RCA (single ended) output. Sometimes the output on the high output DACs is just a bit too much with my amps (lacking headroom on the headphone amp's volume pot is annoying), which is what started me to mess around with the volume level o…

I am very happy with my PS Audio DLIII, but I was thinking about someday doing the stage 3 or 4 Cullen mods to my PS Audio DLIII - PS Audio DAC, GCHA, GCPH modifications - Cullen Circuits It wont void the warranty and reviews have been very positive. But someone else recommended another company that did his PSA DLIII mods: Reference Audio Mods, cd player mods,audio mods, audio modifications Do any of you guys have any experience with either company and have any opinions you could share? I'm posting here because at the other forum I expect to get too many conflicting thoughts and opinions from people who have never even heard the mods. Like I said, I am very hap…

Hey guys, The rig has landed. Now, I am completely overwhelmed by this thing. I've put up the basic pieces, and the motor is spinning the platter fine. Now comes the arm. The cartridge is pre-mounted on the arm. The issue is that the arm seems to be tilted inwards a bit. I'm trying to read the manual, but I'm just not going to get anywhere by myself. I'm extremely wanting to learn this stuff, but I need some sort of guide / teacher. Is there anyone in the Southern California region who would like to help me at my place? Dinner's on me! Great Indian food or maybe something else. Basically I want to make sure all the settings are correct before the firs…

Available at late June, ~ 6500 Euro There will be a new turntable at above the level of P9 from the brochure: Matched laser Archiving During manufacture we will match 3 identical laser units. One will be fitted in the player the other two will have the product serial number marked on them and will be archived here at the Rega factory offering guaranteed product longevity and peace of mind for every customer. http://www.my-hiend.com/leoyeh/2009c/ISISinfoflyer.pdf

Me again... So, I'm now looking for a decent phono stage. I've decided that I am going to place my turntable at the back of my room (17ft from front to back). Basically, I want to keep the analog rig far away from the subs etc. at the front of the room. The cartridge is a Clearaudio Accurate and here are the specs on that:

Just got this in yesterday and cold right out of the box, put a big smile on my face. This thing has gobs of PRAT and I now have BASS like I never had before. BIG SOUND out of this black box. Hate to use this cliche but I am hearing things (minute details) that I never heard before. Could be a keeper.

Hey Guys, Anyone have any thoughts to share on Linear Tracking tone arms such as this Clearaudio Master TQ-I: I'm thinking of going in for a vinyl setup and one of those setups would have this tone arm. From an engineering stand point, it seems to me that a cartridge would find it easier to track in a linear tone arm as opposed to "traveling" with the grooves in a pivotal tone arm. Thats just my initial thought, but I would love to hear some opinions before I make any plunge Thanks!

Has anyone heard any of the Audio-gd dacs? Specifically the Reference One. Not sure on the details of the output stage but at $1300 for a fully balanced pcm1704 dac. It's awfully tempting.

Now I'm down to the following two choices for a DAC - both are around the same price. 1. Little Dot DAC 1 - brand new USB DAC just released this month from Little Dot' - around $300 OR 2. Parasound DAC-1000 - 15 years old used/good condition - original cost $775...used around $300 I am a novice and this will be my first DAC to be used in conjunction with my computer as source (ASUS P5Q-EM Motherboard). Any help and advice would be appreciated. Thanx