Home Source Components

Has anyone had a chance to hear the new McIntosh SACD/CD beast yet. I'm pretty sure this uses the new ESS ES9018 chip. It also has SPDIF in so this is certainly a contender for the 2-channel system. Well except for the fact it has a $6500 MSRP and at that price point it better be pretty special.

Neko Audio D100 Impressions After being a speaker only guy for awhile I wanted to put together a headphone rig again for late night listening sessions. I had never sold my 650's so I had the headphone part covered and then I was fortunate enough to get a Dynahi at a fantastic price. Leaving the source as the only thing left to get, I knew I wanted a dac as I was planning to use the Squeezebox as the transport. I've heard quite a few dacs in the $1k price range over the years and none really ever satisfied me and some I flat out hated then I recalled reading this thread about a new transformer coupled dac. I've had very good experiences with transforme…

The PS Audio PerfectWave DAC is out: PerfectWave DAC : Product Details | PS Audio The DAC is 2995, but PS Audio is offering a trade-in until the end of May. If I understand correctly, send in your DAC and you will receive up to $1000 off (DAC trade-in value appears to be based on MSRP). Brings the unit to $1995. I'm still trying to piece together what exactly this thing does. Is this just a big gizmo, or does it seem like it could be something that sounds good?

What good/excellent sources are there with usb and toslink inputs that have an inbuilt preamp or have consumer (-10dBu) rather than line-level (+4dBu) analog XLR outputs ? It`d need to have usb and toslink inputs at a bare minimum, i2s would help future proof it . I am looking for a quieter source than my line-level mini-dac so that I can remove the voltage divider I`m having to use to reduce its volume. A source with as good or better performance than the mini-dac is preffered. my current solution http://www.head-case.org/forums/do-yourself/5997-resistor-type-make-volume-attenuation.html#post218512

Hi all, there's someone selling one locally for $300 CDN, do you guys think it's a fair price? The seller said the unit is clean and I'll be going to his place tomorrow to see the unit for myself, but since I haven't bought used gears at this age(10 years for this DAC?), what should I look for particularly? Thx **Pending sale to Alec** Parasound DAC 1100 HDCD - Canuck Audio Mart

Well after some futzing I have modified Exact Audio Copy to check to see if a file has HDCD Data and if it does use this: HDCD Software Decoder [Archive] - Doom9's Forum or: Index of /~cjk32/hdcd to convert it to a 24 bit file and then encode to a lossless WMA at with 24 bits. The files aren't much bigger than the 16 bit files because most of the extra bits are zeros anyway. Pretty cool Can I hear the difference? haven't tried yet but I certainly like knowing that I can get everything out of the HDCDs. Only problem now is that I will have to go through and re-rip my HDCDs.

Just got this baby installed. It sounds a little better than my Moodlab did, still breaking in, only 1 hour old. Have a 1962 GE tube in it, been conjuring up the wallet resources to get a fancier tube like a 396 or a Bendix *shudder*. Seems to be more musical than other DACs as people have told me...you really get a feel for the instruments not just fancy bold noises and sounds. And with that, I'll take any questions. MHDT has good service, they took about a day to get back to me and then I got set up. DAC took 4 days to come. Shipped Saturday, came Wednesday. They're turbo fast, it cleared customs in 4 hours luckily enough. There was a powdered Chinese tube …

Well these look interesting: zodiac_rubicon I watched a video and he let drop that it uses a Burr Brown DAC. the video is here: Musikmesse 2009 - Audiofanzine I dunno though. I wonder when they will be out. The quoted SNR and Dynamic ranges are insane. I assume with those numbers it would need to be the PCM1794A/PCM1792A.

The AKM 32bit Dac is interesting to me as I commonly see people refering to it as a wonderful sounding Dac. Also to add that it seems to be found in a couple very high end sources such as the APL NWO 3.0 GO and Esoteric D-05 Dac. I myself have auditioned the APL NWO 3.0 and I do realize that it has something insane like twenty 32bit converters in each channel, but I cannot forget that smooth yet detailed sound I enjoyed so much. This is why I want to audition the D-05 and APL Denon 3910.(with the AKM dac) I have a couple questions about sources that would help clarify my understanding. First, im sure that its not just the dac in a source that determines the sound qual…

I hadn't come across this until today and, albeit well above my price point, it looks pretty close to the single-box, hi-resolution solution of my computer audio dreams. 32-bit DACs; USB, optical and coax digital ins; native DSD, DSD-to-PCM, PCM-to-DSD; 32-bit digital volume control. Here's the marketing fluff. Let's hope this starts a trend!

My Zhaolu won't receive a coax or optical signal....I can hear a current rush through the headphones when I power it up, but then it goes to mute.. and then nothing.... Headphone amp module doesn't work either. I use it for late night TV with an M^3, but it stopped working yesterday. It just goes to mute after I turn it on. Here are some pics, maybe some of the DIYers can spot what's wrong with it. All the leds inside light up and the muting led flashes. Nothing looks burnt or leaking, what do you guys think? Thanks for taking a look. USG

So what do you guys (and gals) think? A Sony TTS-8000 turntable and Fidelity Research FR-54 arm for $1800 total including shipping. Yay or Nay?

*Gets straight to the point* https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=226826 Its not a replacement for foobar (only plays one file at time, doesn't support anything besides flac and wav), but I think it actually sounds better. It gobbles up 1gb of my RAM with AWE on though and the file I'm playing is only 300mb~ The main improvement I think I'm hearing is in the soundstage, there seems to be a lot more depth now, and the sounds are nicely spaced out when it sometimes gets a bit cluttered with foobar. This is where I heard about it: http://www.odysseyaudiohk.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1215105279

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.

Hi Everyone, after getting advice from Icarium, I think I will skip Esoteric DAC lines. Right now , I have just known the Plantinum DAC III and plan to hunt for a used one. Does anyone know how much it will cost for a used one so i can save enough money for it? any owners, here?? thanks

Just in case people are interested in having a sample rate converter for Foobar2000 I just found this: A new resampler DSP for foobar2000 - Hydrogenaudio Forums I don't think the SRC is going to make my audio sound any different but I have also learned that they can do a lot of damage too. If you don't believe me look at the comparisons here: SRC Comparisons The one above is based on the SoX resampler which looks excellent in the test results above and has lots of options about phasing of the impluse response if you buy what Ayre says in that other thread. I went looking for something that had been measured to settle any misgivings I had about the PPHS res…

Hi Everyone. I just heard the Cary 306 professional and I loved how it sounded. It had a bunch of detail and the highs sounded bright to me, but it didn't sound harsh or shrill. Also, every instrument and the vocals had it's own space. Overall it was just amazing. What is a good price for a used one? Also, does anyone know of a comparable source that may be a little cheaper? Thanks for any help or sugguestions.

Hi everyone, I am looking for a new DAC new and kind of love Esoteric product. Right now there is one for sale on audiogon. However, I don't know whether Esoteric D-05 is really an amazing DAC for that much investment or not. Can any owner of Esoteric D-05 tell me your opinion? what is the price range for a used one? thanks

Looks like the Abrahamsen v6.0 DAC is shipping in Norway, according to a thread on HF. But it's only shipping in Norway.

Hooray, they let me into the early adoption program. Should have it next week. Looks like it'll be a very nice player for folks like me with a mainly HT orientation and potentially a pretty decent transport for those with higher-rez audio aspirations, too. Let's wank about it right here!

I thought this great little device deserves a thread, the pre-order with an intro price is now on: HeadAmp Pico Upsampling USB DAC - Pre-Order Now at intro price - Head-Fi: Covering Headphones, Earphones and Portable Audio

I bought a NOS dac (audiosector/audio zone) and love the sound and am wondering about these (audial see below) or other higher end NOS dac's. I know the arguments against these (noisy, no resolution etc) not interested in a debate. Any help with these dacs would be appreciated. Audial :: High Quality Audio Equipment

Auspicious name, though I know not if it is indeed in reference to the goddess. WM8804/2*PCM1794/24 bit-192kHz/Jensen trafo-coupled output stage/$1295.

I sold my McCormack DNA-500 to a guy with an agreement that he could audition it and decide whether to go through with it. He uses his Bel Canto Dac3 as source and preamp. He goes directly into the amp, and I have asked whether he uses balanced XLR cables or s/e RCA cables but I have not heard back yet. The amp sounds great with his Wilson Benesch speakers, but the problem is a buzz/hiss that is present and presumably most noticeable in quiet passages or when there is no music playing. He has contacted SMc Audio, Steve McCormack's shop, and has done what they have suggested (cheater plug, switch outlets, try a line conditioner and direct into outlet, etc) to no avai…

The story starts here: http://www.head-case.org/forums/home-source-components/5712-vintage-dac-sonic-frontiers-sfd-2-a.html So to summarize the story: last week I bought a vintage Sonic Frontiers DAC and I come home and the right channel is completely distorted. Although it managed to work for a few hours (giving me a taste of its magic), afterwards the distortion came back and never left . So I take it to a repair shop and the person confirms it is the right DAC is at fault. Yes, the one with the bizarre foil on it . So I've been had. The D20400A chip is probably quite hard to find these days and probably obsolete as well so a solution occurred to me which …