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Hey Guys, has anyone here has experience with AudioNote's Dacs ? (AA UK not JPN) I hear they are very good in that department, any opinion about that ? I am thinking on grab a DAC 1.1x or 2.0X for listen and I wonder if it worth it.

Anybody heard this cart? Rumor has it the 440MLa pairs well with the SL1200, and I'm thinking of picking one up not just for varieties sake, but also so I can get some practice adjusting cartridge alignment. http://www.needledoctor.com/Audio-Technica-440MLa-Cartridge?sc=9

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.

For anyone curious I just put an order in for the AudioByte Hydra Vox dac a Romanian manufacturered component and sister company of famed Rockna Audio . It’s a interesting dac , it’s configured to stack with separate power supplies, yes plural and soon to be released server named the Hub . The dac is FPGA based , pure one bit and no dac chip and much more including a superb purpose built headphone input. I believe M***.com is the US distributor and ***.com a dealer where I placed my order I’m sure there are other dealers however I found Vlad owner of *** out of Minnesota to be fabulous to deal with.

Audiophilleo1 - advanced low jitter USB to SPDIF transport Thoughts folks? Load of crocks or something that works ?

I did promise some internal pics a long time ago but here they finally are. I did manage to fuck up the shots of the other side of the board so only the top part shown. The SR-X Mk3 Pro used to show just how tiny this DAC is. Not that many parts used but the quality is very high indeed.

Anyone listened to one of these? It ticks a few boxes for me and would be curious to find one on the used market to play with - let me know if you happen to run across a listing.

Stereophile: Ayre's QB-9 USB DAC Revealed

A new music player: AyreWave from sbooth.org Mentioned here: Stereophile: Wavelength Leads the Way Initial impressions this morning is that it puts out better music than Amarra Mini (2.0.1). More texture to instruments (low-level detail) with my LCD-2 or borrowed O2 rigs. If I don't pay attention, but just listen to a good acoustic track in a relaxed manner in both, then I get the feeling that Amarra is a little bit more hard-edged digital in presentation and with AyreWave the music sounds a bit more "real". The simple UI is good: Select a bunch of tracks in iTunes or the Finder and click on the relevant button in AyreWave to add them to the persistent playli…

Ok, so I know you guys don't like long posts or reviews, so I'll make this as short as possible. I recently got to spend some time with the PureDAC and found it to be a really interesting DAC. I'm very sorry if this ends up being an unwanted topic, but maybe someone's interested in it, so hey... maybe it's worth the risk. I found it to be a fine use of a Sabre chip. Sounds colder than both my Abrahamsen V6.0 and Electrocompaniet ECD-1, but comparatively more tonally correct. Mids take a step or two backwards and are more relaxed. The V6.0's mids, surprisingly, end up sounding harsh in comparison. It's just a very cohesive, linear and incredibly refined and transparent…

Have you tried this DSP software bundle with calibrating interface? I just saw it advertised on a HDTracks newsletter. https://www.theoretica.us/bacch4mac/CheskyLanding16.html I think it's very expensive and the charge for annual tech service seems... ludicrous? yet if it really works well it could be interesting for headphone listening or even speakers 3D enhancement.

Okay, just kicking around an idea here. Kevin at KAB does a Cardas rewire terminated in a 5 pin DIN phono plate. I emailed Kevin and asked if this was a truly balanced connection for use with a balanced phono stage. His response: "That is the one single advantage of the din connector. carrying a balanced connection from the cartridge to the preamp. it has 5 pins. + - right, + - left, and a sheild. RCA's cannot be used for that, of course your phono stage must be able to accept that kind of connector as well." ...so I could get this done to my TT, and run XLRs to something like the Aqvox Phono 2Ci MKII Balanced Phono Preamp, and then of course the balanced amp,…

Listening to one right now... sounds excellent for the cost (~$25) and time spent building (~3 hours). I wish the position on the PCB where the coupling caps are could alternately accommodate a PCB mini-jack, as I'd prefer to use input coupling caps on each of my amplifiers (as opposed to the output coupling caps on the Bantam)..... this way I could tune the input cap values to the impedance of the specific amp I'd be using. Probably the output caps are more idiot-proof though. I've tried both the suggested Wima and Black Gate coupling caps and now prefer a pair of blue OS-CON caps that I stole off of swt61's old Opus More info: BantamDAC Overview

Has anyone heard it? Looks pretty good on paper, but so far, no real word-of-mouth impressions I can find around the net.

Got an email from the manufacturer. ETA on the DAC3 is 6-8 weeks barring an unforeseen complication/delay. They WILL be offering the DAC via their online/web store as well. Also, I asked about taking Paypal and the email claimed the topic had been referred to another department for evaluation but that they'd probably be doing this as well. I'm sure form of payment doesn't mean much to you single guys but for those husbands like myself who would prefer to keep the amounts he's spending on these "toys" to himself and away from his significant other, this would be a welcome addition to the services offered!

Bel Canto USB Link 24/96 Debuts

My apologies if this has been posted before, but hadn't seen much info on this one: [/snip] [The dock features] Analog Devices AD21369 32-bibit floating-point digital signal processing core and 96kHz/24-bit converters for analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog, resulting in a 110dB dynamic range with distortion of under .004 percent. The dock will also include DSP technologies for improving sound quality: Adaptive Dynamics (restores the sound quality of compressed audio), X-Matrix (virtual surround sound for two speakers or headphones), and Extrapolator, which turns the iPod's stereo signal to 5.1- or 7.1-channel sound. All of these signal processors have separ…

what is the reasoning behind using a belt-driven cd transport which differentiates it from a direct/gear-driven transport? is it one of those "isolation" things? which i guess leads to the next question... i understand when it comes to tubes and cartridges, but how can minor/micro vibration have any affect on digital? thanks, mjb

DAC1 PRE - Benchmark Media Systems, Inc. I have never heard a DAC1, and I get the impression that they are generally frowned upon here at Head-Case, while the rest of the audio world seems to be impressed. The review of the new Benchmark DAC1 PRE in the most recent Hi-Fi news was nothing short of glowing. Ken Kessler couldn't seem to find enough good things to say about this unit, including that it made one recording "...sound as lush and room-filling as a mint original vinyl pressing." So anyone heard one of these? Its level of functionality truly is enticing at its price tag of $1575.

Just curious what the real benefits are of running a low output MC cart vs a high output MC? For example my next phono will be best suited for medium to high output carts unless I used step up transformers. To use an example with the Dynavector 20X. Is there any benefit to getting the .3 mV with SUTs vs the 2.8 mV without any transformer in the signal path? Quirky enough I know I've read that some people prefer the high end SUTs (OOP S&B silver transformers) with normal phono-stages... Just looking to maybe learn a thing or two

I have searched but seems hard to find any professional review, however didnt find anything bad as well, but still not that much. Came acros used one and willing to hear more impressions, if possible please, especially in my system. Produkte - CD-Spieler 1 THX.

Pardon the mess; I'm moving next week so I don't have a nice table to put everything on. I knew I had to buy it as soon as I heard Voltron's set up at CanJam. I got it about three hours ago and it's terrific like I remembered it. So far, I'm using the AES input on my Primare DVD30 to compare the DACs between the two devices. It's my very first piece of individual equipment that costs this much so I'm experiencing a whole new level of sound. For example, I always discounted one recording as flawed because of strange background noises but the higher resolution of this DAC makes it very clear that it's just sound from the audience. Apparently, I'll get even more mileag…

Just wanted to see what people think is good in this price range. I am thinking about the DA100 as it will accept new sources in the future.

Hey guys, i have done extensive reading both here and on "that other site" and i more or less decided on buying a Pico because i read some glowing reviews from experienced and well respected members,but then i read some not so glowing reviews ,not a suprise since this happens with just about anything in audio. plus it is really hard to keep up with all the new DAC's,so i was wondering if you could tell me that the Pico is still the best at it's price range or would you recommend i'll go for something else,all i care about is SQ and not features and connectivity etc. thanks!

I have a DAC1 USB to a Luxman P1u to a pair of HD820. Should I do better than the DAC1? I have limited space. Probably pointless to upgrade. Wish I had a DAC still that would not fit there: