Azazel

I had the 5400 receiver and was pretty good. It is not up to Onkyo 906 buliding standard, but I will put on par wit it and Yamaha Z7 on SQ and general usability-day to day reward (had both and Pio etc too). But as said, if you do not 'need' the ultimatest, you can do well with something good pre-hdmi and a switcher

+1 The metal surrounding the damaged wood looks too well for those to be hits on transport, and doing a bad packaging may be part of the plot. Does not look too good to me: refund ASAP. (edited: I have been a little slow to answer sorry) Oh and afaik both D1 and Para1600 have double primaries on its tansformers, so rewirable for 230VAC.

I had an Opera too, lovely case and 'practical' unit, but way overpriced and underperformer IMO. What I loved about it was the crossfeed (with those recordings asking to use it, not all) and the gain switch... that's it; well it sounded smoothy unless pushed hard. Oh yes and Jan Meier is a nice guy and quick at answering emails. The hp out of the DAC1 does better with most cans IMO than the Opera, and the Benchmark case is cute too I cannot imagine a way to like the Opera better than a M3 even using crappy PS and opamps on the AMB unit... I know, I have two M3s and made that test, and it sounded still fine (I did not compare directly to Opera as it was long ago gone). And it MUST be said for the price of an Opera you get two (three?) nicely done M3's. Maybe a fairer (?) comparison will be Opera against a two-board Beta22, but boy, I will be only fair price-wise...

Yups, we need a green hat Monkey (aka 'dac collector') on this side of the sea, Antonio

This particular Bitstream unit is one of the first,'made in Canada', units iirc: no need to upgrade (no leaky caps etc). So, yes, it is a good deal

Good review Monkey: the good, if short, double good I have a Buffalo (not 32) and even after an overkill PSU (I use a Sigma22 for the IVY board) it has that 'laid back' quality, only that I like this , its smoothness and detail, a bit like I like my G08 player and a contrast to my DAC1 Benchy (modded with different coupling caps inside and less 'agressive', but it is how it is). One has the impression of the UDAC as it is close to the original Buffalo.

x2 I have been buying from US (not only 'audio' stuff) for more than 20 years and the only problem is how to deal (read cheat...) with customs. And if you need to send the stuff back you have a smaller problem than if you bought it in China, btw. Btw I do like my HD800s (but I somewhat hate the 6k peak too).

This is right. From Sony player -> Sony receiver (digital via HDMI HATS) -> External power amp/s (via RCA analogue), best SQ in multichannel.

keep in mind the Sony is just an (analogue) stereo machine. To have multichanel you need a decoder, and to have best multichannel (using the hdmi HATS) you need a Sony latest decoder (just 5400 or 6400). You may then decide to use an external power amp: fine. My advice will be to use just a stereo one for the front main channels, that way the internal amp/psu of the receiver will be much less stressed (less stress = better sound). Many people (me included) have multichannel/home cinema configured this way (AV receiver + stereo power amp).

Unless you plan to listen to REAL loud levels constantly (say 'party') it is always a best bet to let the receivers on '8 ohm': here the internal PSU is its max output and the amp section has the most headroom. With 4-ohm setting it may sound less dynamic, yes. But if you combine low impedance speakers AND loud levels, the current goes too high and there is not enough aluminium inside, nor fans powerful enough, to cope the extra W dissipated, and the amps sections shuts themselves off (thermal protection). This happens really rarely, and is safe (reversible) unless some component shows its internal magic (they do in a smoke form), even more rare.

Ok, they are here: number 359, "F1" and good lettering as far as I see. Good customs bill too, btw

At last! "Order Number: 597x Date Ordered: Mon, Jun 22, 2009 at 03:55:46 PM The comments for your order are: Your order shipped August 21st via Priority Mail." Believe it or not, those will be my first pair of Grado's. I have to admit I never like them too much when I tried around (but just SR60-325-rs1's if memory serves, and long long ago). We'll see.

If you are around home these days we must meet Antonio, and I will bring my Benchmark (with its single but relevant mod)...

I like to learn new words! Well, I see the Ultracurve (aka DEQ2496) just as a toy with lots of possibilities and is an easy recommendation at its price. But if you use your computer as a source there are many totally free options to experiment with frequency response 'touch'. Off course I agree with Antonio most DACs measure ruler flat say to 16-18kHz, but if someone -like Monkey did- thinks there is 'something' in its sources freq resp, he needs to 'play' a bit with this and see the effect by itself. And this is why I put the craptacular Behringer into the eq...ation

Monkey, maybe you are now in a good position to spend (under) $300 on something different: an eq (yes!) like the Behringer Ultracurve. You can go digital in-digital out and it is quite transparent this way. Then, you can do almost anything your imagination may want, in particular you can eq a little bit to see, with knowledge, what do you hear and what happens if you have a little lees highs, or a litte more mids, or whatever... Believe me, it is much fun, and very 'educative': afterwards you will be able to identify in auditions what is doing the hardware to the signal. For the price of, say, one cable. Josep

Wes, just curious, did you try some Sowter from UK? They have a fine range with fair prices... Maybe it is time for the foundation of "Moar Iron Team"

I used LL1674 on some DACs, I like it. I love my S&B-based preamp. MOAR IRON!

Mmm... Something for my 'to do' list (oh how I miss my Palm btw!) id this AB test: -'A' is the balanced out of my Pass D1 (it does use 2 chips per channel, one PCM63K 'hot' and another 'cold'), transformed (via Jensen trafo) to unbalanced. -'B' is the single-ended out of the Pass D1 (just one PCM63K, the 'hot' of the balanced signal). My bet is 'A' should sound better. If I do the same experiment with my Benchmark (the XLR outs are sourced from unbalanced signals with the help of some opamps) my bet, then, is 'B' should sound better. qed

Because if your DAC is a true balanced design and you take just the "hot", you are listening to half its circuit. With a transformer you have the full thing working converted to single end.

My bet is do not do it the usual way (shorting pins 1 and 3), instead: -wire pin 2 (XLR) to hot/center (RCA) -best: use a signal transformer from XLR to RCA. There are cheap and good Pros, and Neutrik or Lundahl makes best ones.

Concerning voltage out: one thing is the stated value, another thing is the measured value on some review unit, and yet another thing is the actual value in your unit. Two later ones usually are closer than first one IME, so don not take manufacturer data too seriously... It is the usual practice to have the balanced out at double voltage than unbalanced, hence the 6dB difference here. Accuphase choice is strange however, but -say- the Benchmark itself has a "non-true" balanced output (created from the unbalanced signal with a couple of opamps) and the regular 6dB difference. Good DAC for 2K$? Good question... but I feel there are some very nice options around the 1K mark, both new and used, and then you have to go a bit further to have significantly moar DAC

Why? Does it change significantly the sound? How does this fit on the tests you described above? If you like the Dodson more I cannot see why more switches and lights on the Bryston box may made the decision (to ditch it) tougher... On the other hand I DO have a problem because my (slightly modded) Benchmark is sounding really nice and is really versatile, but I do like my Pass D1 much as well and, oh, lets not forget how wonderful does sound my Buffalo...

Monkey... I feel the DAC force strong in you

Yep. I have still to find a better preamp (or a unit whose performance I like more) than my passive S&B unit (Music First, Bent Audio). However passive/transformer "fan" I am, I preferred the sound of my Buffalo DAC using its IVY active output stage better than a passive one (Lundahl trafos). As for DAC chips in particular... yes I too have liking for the classic BBs (pcm63, pcm1702 and 1704), and the latest ESS Sabre are great flavour of the season, but it is clear to me that is much more important how the maker/designer "cooks" than the ingredients they use. Good PSU, good pcb design, good digital front-end design, and last but no least digital filtering and signal manipulation.

The 1600 from Germany? No, not me... (but I was tempted I must confess, specially after selling my Yulong yesterday: one goes, another may come, wife does'nt see the difference)