granodemostasa

all this means is a second round of exits from Head-fi....

Hello the owner of the dac just stopped by and i had a listen of it. He seemed like a very old timer, and he obviously didn't understand much of my "audiophile" talk so i didn't push him so far as opening it up and such. okay: frequency response: this is far more neutral sounding, less bassy and has more treble presence than the Wavelength brick- i obviously think that this is the flattest dac i've heard yet. while the zhaolu (on my system) had a tendency to go towards brightness and leanness, this one does have a tendency towards the midrange. Overall, i didn't hear a flat sound...instead what i got was a gradually lowering treble, not too much, but enough to be noticable. Frequency extension basically, how far it can go up and down- simply put, this was the best i've ever heard. the zhaolu was a cube, the wavelength brick was a pancake and the Dac 60 is an ocean- it just goes that far into the bass and treble. speed- this dac is surprizingly fast and powerful- every hit of the drums was like nothing i've ever heard before. i actually think this is faster than the zhaolu and certainly far faster than the wavelength brick. treble- it's got a very soft, extended and sweet treble. while i normally like this, there is one problem- the clarity and ring of triangles i clearly heard on the benchmark Dac-1 simply isn't there... in fact, triangles melt into the background to the point where they need to be listend for to be heard. soundstage- YES! the best i've ever heard. it was wide, deep, up, and down.. it just was exactly what i'm looking for. resolution and detail- lacking. this thing has less resolution than the brick, and certainly less detail than the benchmark and ori modded zhaolu. yet... somehow listening to this thing, i dont' mind, it just sounds that good. Piano- well, it's not the dry piano of the zhaolu, or the muddiness of the brick, but it does have problems-it seemed a little too sweet sounding compared to all the pianos i usually hear. vocals- not as good as the brick, but certainly better than all the other dac's i've ever heard. Dyanmics-yes, very very very good... i can't understate how amazing the dyanmics were with this thing. Also- the blackness and the abiltiy to differentiate between different insturments was spectacular. Violins- here we have a problem. it sounds like a sennheiser- by that i mean, the string section sounds like one thick organ pipe, much of the naturalness and that beautiful wooden sound just wasn't there.... overall, this is what bothered me the most; that it didnt' sound the way it was suppose to.

but the CD3000+bada ph12+eastsound is the best rig ever.... I dont' know what the chain was, whether he took his cans into some else's rig or brough the ZD into is own... but to describe something as "broken" makes me think something IS broken. in any case, the SA5000... ewe...

i still think you should seriously consider the zana deux. i used it with the GS1000 for a day or so, and it seemed as an awsome combination. as for the treble, again, at least a dozen people have heard my amp-many for multiple days, and no one has yet commented on any problems in the treble. and no, while some may suggest that the love affair witht the zana deux is because of it's looks, i seriously don't sit around looking at my amp, and i wouldn't feel any different about it if it looked like a headroom desktop or a GS-X.

the one i'm going to try is one with sonicroft mods

turns out that i'm going to have a chance to shootout the modded dac 60 with the wavelength brick. btw... on review, the brick ran all over the zhaolu.

interesting... but not interested. what i am interested in is the moth dac.... craig hinted that it would be in the 1-2K range, but also warned that he is not sure if it would ever go into production. apparently it's just for shows at this moment. back to the dac search.... anyone know anything about the sonicraft modded dac-60?

i'm curious... but it won't change what i do... and there are all kinds of computer based transport systems that cost big money are are promoted as better than conventional CD transports... red wine, empirical, slim devices, wavelength for example.

Hi, i use it off a hard drive... and i'm not going to chance my habits of organizing and music listening.

so he has been working on that dac.... wow, I should hear it... the dac he had sounded amazing with the ZD. humanflyz- you do have an unconventional set up...still, i think you would benefit more from a dac/pre than i would from it.

why don't you take one for the team for a change (btw, if you want to hear the brick either tonight or tomorrow will be your last chance).

yea.. the stelllo is what i'm most seriously thinking about right now. I got most of what i would consider "my" sound in place, the zana deux, the HD650, and the equionx cable all convinced me of their worthiness. but to start it off with i need a good source to complete the ideal-right now the stello seems to fit most of what i would like (and with balenced outputs it allows for expansion into a separate setup). When i do go out and to it, the little losses dont bother me... except when i add them up and thing-Oh, i coulda gotten a new ipod or UE triple fis with all the lost money. currently the transporter, belcanto 3, and stello are the top three on my mind...

warm and fuzzy is just about the last thing i need with a tube amp>HD650 combo. there are many good options, but outright loosing so much money becuse of audio gear - about 200 in total for tubes that never showed up, 40ish on shipping back and forth to Ori- makes me seriously want to leave this hobby. i need to make safe purchases and i've been taking "risks" in hope they pay off and end up just getting stung by them.... the internet is a dangerous place, and people can talk themsevles into anything.

This journey has been long and painful, after many dacs, and much lost money, I have yet to find a dac that I can settle on, or at least be happy with for now, until i can afford a high end piece of gear. I thought it would be easy.... people with tin ears tell us that just about all dacs sound alike... with wide spread concensus one would think that the decisoin would be easy. well, it's not. 1. The raves about the modded zhaolus convinced me to buy one, but that's where things went wrong. it's not that the zhaolu isn't a good piece of gear, it's that the one I got is horrible. Ori did his famous mod on mine.. and it broke 3 times! wires became loose, there was all kinds of static noise, there was interference and much more. Then he decided to "upgrade" it... when i finally did get the upgraded unit no sound would come out of the left channel! 2. The wavelenght brick- what a piece of shit! not that it sounds like one, but it comes in an iron box, and has a walwort worthy of a $5 walmart lamp as it's powersupply. it has a terribly upclose soundstage, that pretty much takes away any real imaging the music could have had. Well, i got it for 1033 and sold it for 970, a 63 dollar loss.. fine, but when i can't buy groceries for the sake of this thing, those 63 dollars hurt. others that i've tried: 3. benchmark- bright! 4. Lavry- well, i'd like some treble with that. 5. stello 220- where'd the bass go? in any case, i'm pretty much broke until Feb.. so i guess i'll have to do with my T42>zana deux

ohio i'm just about it's harshest critic on head-fi, and even then, that's when comparing it against a dynamight... i still have yet to hear a singlepower that's as good as my zana deux.

he can't sell it if he's using the lavry to power his F1>K1000, since the headroom doesn't have preamp or dac out. ... and that reminds me; humanflyz, when am i going to hear that new amp of yours? wait... how are you going to connect it to the lavry if the lavry only has one set of analouge outs?

hi. I live in Berkeley CA, it would be great if you could drop by. there are berkeley mini meets all the time, and i'm sure we could set one up for you (berkeley head-fiers have amps such as the F1, dynamight, mapletree hd150, mpx slam, zana deux and whatever filbert has, and a great range of souces to try it out with). Also, i'll surely be at the national meet...

my first offtopic chance to RSA bash: At least headroom is willing to admit what it's amps can and can't do, rsa put the k1000 on the raptor and tried to sell it as a K1000 amp (surprize surprize, the next thing i know, there are at least a couple of poeple with that same meredian>raptor>K1000 rig), and then he put a Hd650 on the tomahawk and told us it could do it well, but he won't "officially" market it as that.... so when could we expect these things to be sold? when, do you think, could be our first chance to hear it? (like when it actually gets built and ships to people).

hey hey.. stop bombing... i meant it as an "oversimplication" it's not like i'm going to ride off an amp before i actually hear it...

sorry.... my impression of ss/balenced has always been a very lean, fast, clear sound, and i thought that would make a nice compliment to the warm sound of the zana deux. well, i guess i'll have to hear it at the national meet to get an impression of it... still, it's an impressive accomplishment,

it looks like i might be saying goodby to the brick.. which is sad, since i'm finally learning to love it in my set up. in any case, i think this will be my final review of it: the Brick- the brick is a USB, tube dac. it basically carries with it all the magic that a tube dac can problably create. it's far simpler to implement with a computer than the zhaolu, which takes the converter (in my case, i'm using the audiophile usb). The dac reacts poorly to poor interconnects, i did a test, and the differences in interconnects are not to be underestimated; with my monster/radio shack cables it sounded terrible, but with my Grover UR8 it was pure magic. where it sounds best is pieces with piano, voices, and deep insturments. there is serious "weight" and punch with every note delivered (far more than with the benchmark or ori zhaolu). the sounds is amazingly smooth, so much so that it makes a laugher out of the harsher presentations of dacs like the benchmark and oritek. the soundstage does leave things to be desired, this isn't the K1000 but the grado RS-1, the presentation is upfront and in your face, which is nothing like the laid back zhaolu. however, this isn't to say that there is no separation; it's separation is right up there with the best of dacs, but it's certainly different from what i've heard in the past. the biggest advantage is the simple path of upgrades, there are power supply upgrades and tube upgrades (i would like to roll more tubes one of these days). the ori dac if the wavelength is a roaring lion, the ori dac is a singing bird. there is a lighter sound to the ori dac, in fact, with the UR8, i found it to be far brighter and treble centered (although not as horrifyingly bright as the benchmark). it does react well with interconnects, but i think the UR8 might be a little too lean for it, i may get a continuous cast copper (very warm/heavy sounding) interconnect if i decide to keep it. this, in fact, brings me to it's biggest problem (and why i started searching for other things), which is the general presence of each note played, they were there, but somewhat light sounding in comparison to other dacs. there are obvious advantages to the ori dac, it's soundstage is wide, laid back and super clean sounding (although not very holographic in nature). probably my favorite aspect is how fast it is, the decays, the hits, the attacks all sound nice and crisp, it really did give an added level of speed and refinement to my HD650. compared: the brick has a wider and flatter frequency range than the ori, that is, it can portray more notes at the bottom and more at the top before things start sounding alike. the ori, on the otherhand, has greater dynamics (probably due to ori's transformer moddifications). a friend pionted out that the zhoalu sounds like a brick of butter, but the wavelength sounds like spread out butter-it covers more music, but it's dynamics are not as great. i did a resolution test, and, surprizingly, i actually thought i got more detail with the brick than the ori dac, but i still havn't seen how that translates on the music.... in any case, it looks like my next stop will be the slimdevices transporter....

what! a balenced ss amp and it wont' even make things superfast and clean? why am i looking at this for then

wow, you are making me regret the zana deux... that looks soo good.

i saw it very shortly after it went up, and it was already gone.

i've looked into this in the past (and i'm still considering it)... red wine audio made one a while back that was said to sound indistinguishable from the empirical audio stuff; however, a look on their website revealed they no longer make it.