The Monkey

By early August, I will have a proper HD 800 rig and a proper O2 rig and will test extensively. I will also be able to rotate in 37 DACs for comparison.

Manley SkipJack FTW! Seriously, the SkipJack is making these comparisons pretty fun/easy. Of course, it's single-ended, so the direct comparisons need to be understood in that context. More relatives than absolutes.

Take one guess...

Yes, but I need to try one of every DAC to find that which I believe to be a good one. Plus the Bryston was a decent price. Plus I'm crazy. Ugh, I know, I know. But this is it--I mean it this time. I'm trying to send back the UDAC today. My 30-day return window expired yesterday, but that should roll over to today since I couldn't ship on a Sunday. I emailed HR to confirm. SOURCE FIRST, SECOND, THIRD, AND FOURTH, AND MAYBE EVEN FIFTH AND SIXTH!

Well, we'll see. I have one coming soon. Jesus.

Good luck, Luis. Went to Brooklyn to send friends' new pad. Went to birthday party for screaming banshee children. Pirate theme. With swords. For 3-year olds.

^It's a shame. I didn't even know what was happening until reading about it post facto. I'm glad I missed it.

Syrupy?

ASR, how would you describe the sound signature of the Bryston?

Any more Bryston thoughts?

So far I feel a little meh about the ESS stuff, but I'd like to hear the Peachtree.

No, they've trained me, but when they keep me locked in the damn cage, I make damn sure they know how I feel.

I guess that's right, isn't it. We learn by doing (and breaking). I've been meaning to get back into DIY anyway, and it looks like I should be able to fix the cage pretty easily. KG was kind enough to give some advice. I'll post updates. Also, I communicated with a few people about this DAC and it turns out that 1) the designer probably is just retired, not dead; 2) the company that bought Dodson, Silversmith Audio, still upgrades the units, but this one is as close to the 218 version as it can get; and 3) the new DA 218 Palladium version is still being sold--for $8k. Jeff Silversmith preferred not to share the schematic, but he seems like a pretty nice guy.

When is your O2 rig arriving?

I find this description very much in line with my own experience thus far with the HD800. I like it very, very much. By far my favorite dynamic. But I am beginning to suspect that I have more of that emotional response when I have listened to the O2. I haven't listened to my stats in a while, so I will need to confirm this theory.

I was feeling bad about it. It isn't broken, but it's no longer "perfect." And then my wife asked me if I wanted to learn about it or if I just wanted to have it on display. I like learning about this crap. I just wish I had more tech skillz.

I made a mess of the metal cage, by the way.

Thanks everyone for your observations so far. As for the sound, I like it a lot so far. It seems a bit quieter than the ECD-1, while retaining the musicality that I like. The mids are very good. And while I usually rely on female vocals to define the mids for me, I've noticed that the Dodson also does a good job with male vocals. At first I thought it could be a slight bit of grain, but I think it's just revealing the fact that male voices are not necessarily "smooth" all the time. For example, Mark Knopfler's voice sounds a bit more gravelly. More like a, well, a man's voice. So, good stuff so far. But still a lot more listening to do.

Yeah, I tried looking, but I can't see under the damn daughterboards:

Wait, what?

Thanks, as always, filburt. The manual says, among other things, that if you have a problem, the processor can be reset by either unplugging the unit or changing inputs momentarily. I wonder if that was addressing the bug of which you speak. Still sounds pretty good though...

Hm, I actually thought I had read that it was 4 layer. I'll see what I can dig up. I'm assuming you can you tell just by looking?

And what does that mean? Assume an infinitely stupid Monkey.

Well, it wasn't easy, but here we have it:

That's no fun Nate