jp11801

anyone that either buys or tries one and needs help doing the initial set up, lmk if I can help.

or in 30 days he can buy yours for $325 shipped;D

I've owned this piece now for a few weeks and have been pretty tight lipped on the sonics publicly. After a few weeks of use in my system damn if this isn't the best dac I've owned. Higher resolution than any of the dacs I've had in the house, greater frequency extension, no top end glare, great tone and just reports the new and does not seem to editorialize. In the house now are 4 dacs and the Sonic Studio 302 takes top honors. I've got an esoteric here on loan, my modded TranDac and the Apogee Duet. I was first turned on to the Metric Halo unit by Ironbut right around the time of the VSAC event. I researched the living crap out of pro audio dacs for a while and it kept coming back to this one (at least in my budget of sub $2k). I looked at the apogee rosetta 200, weiss dac 2 , lavry DA11 and the RME Fireface 800. Well after reading I eliminated the apogee as the reviews were pretty evenly split between both the Metric Halo and the Apogee and the Metric Halo has mic pre amps which could come in handy acting as a gain stage for direct to ADC needle drops, once I pick up the RIAA eq plug in for my unit. The RME unit held promise until I tried a fireface 400 and could not get it work with my mac after several attempts. When I brought it back to Guitar Center the guy there told me I was the second person to bring in the RME for not working out of the box that week. I quickly nixed the RME from my list and that left the Weiss and Lavy. I really like the Lavry and several people I know own either the DA10 or DA11 but after doing the math the Metric Halo was still tops with its ADC section. I still lust after the Weiss but can't get over the fact that I need to buy a separate ADC unit to perform needle drops. Well I set off to buy the Metric Halo used and kept missing them used both on Ebay and Craigslist but lucked out and found the Sonic Studio branded UNL-2 locally. I am listening to the unit right now and I swear it has made my digital section come close to my analog section, something I thought would take a few years and much more $$$$ to do. The unit has a built in headphone amp that works very well with the Grado HF-2s and surprisingly the JH13s but I think might suck with Senn 650s, 800s or AKG 702s. Through both my headphones and my speaker rig it has brought the level of transparency up several notches. There is a presence that I have not heard yet from digital that spooky was that the record or was that sound in real life thing happens much more with this dac. The big bonus for me are the inputs as there are mic preamps with 70db of gain as well as passive inputs with trim pots in case the signal is too hot you can take a few db off. This is really killer for me as I love to digitize my records. I may end up using this as a digital phono preamp in the future once I get some plugs to load the cart. Any way if you are in the market for a dac that works great as a computer interface you should really check one of these out. There are also coax and optical inputs if you want to come from a cd transport. I would gladly throw this in the ring with other dacs in it's price class up to 3-4 thousand. Now I recently heard the Amarra model 4 (metric halo unl-8 without mic pre amps) and that was really special and highly recommended if you have $6-8K. The UNL-2 is $1700 new from MH and can go to $2400 with optional DSP.

just to clarify CanJam at RMAF, the intent was to draw greater interest in the headphone annual event and broaden the level of knowledge regarding the annual event to a greater audience. While it is inevitable that people will agree or disagree with the potential outcome of the naming of the event the goal was to broaden the audience. Yes RMAF will have greater attendance than a CanJam annual event but the focus of the attendees is very different. I believe that both events can co-exist and gain from on another, but well see as time goes on. I would welcome any local participation or help in RMAF and also would welcome ways to market the Chicago event at RMAF. Ryan, just saw your post after mine went up, no vendor I have spoken with has indicated this to be an issue. We have gone a step further to attempt to squelch this by creating a bundle price to entice early enrollment in Chicago. I have no doubt that Chicago will be the largest and best event to date both in scope, size and attendance (both vendor and member).

just got mine today and they look and fit well, I'd like to give it a few days prior to voicing an opinion but they do sound good so far.

Happy Birthday CJ

I would think the RME and Lynx are pretty equal, there is probably info out on the pro audio sites like gearslutz.com

Happy Birthday!

I loves me the Woo 2 and think it betters the extreme in it's stock form. Great sound, a pre amp ans Woo build quality to boot

yeah and at least I am back up and running with the Sonic Studios 302 DAC/ADC with my replacement mac mini.

well after a bit of research it apears I could sell the micro center deal mini that was the same as my doa unit for close to the price I would buy it for from them when I decide to upgrade in six months or so

Looking to step up the video performance so I may just take it on the chin and grab a new 320 gig in a few weeks when I can swing it. Thanks for the suggestions and I'm tempted at that price as resale would be close to breakeven, but I think I'll just chill for 2 weeks. If a guitar I have for sale goes then I can buy it sooner.

The mini is officially DOA, oh well. There were many missteps in getting the fan and and resetting the heatsink after reapplying thermal paste. I get the opening sound for a second a white screen that announces the screen resolution then the fan blows stone cold air for a few seconds then back to no vid output and it shuts down. Probably look at new mac minis today

as eloquent as ever Kathy Peck took my impressions a few weeks back after I heard about these, that is how I met her and got her roped in for CanJam.

Mike damn you give us better sonic impressions as I have to live vicariously through you for a few days until mine arrive.

Damn I love this album

Julian, Happy Birthday, hope to see you in August.

Sorry if my post came off the wrong way, just trying to be helpful. My offer stands to assist when I am down there on 7/15

the vpi arms mount on an incredibly sharp tip (I know as I have inadvertently speared my self) and the armwand cup has a lip that can make you think you are in the center cup. Please check that first to make absolutely sure you are in the center of the armwand, if so then ensure that the cable the comes out of the top of the armwand is not twisted in a way that will make it tilt. I'm in NorCal so no house call soon, but I'll be down in mid July if you are still having troubles. If you got the mounting jig with the table I would double check the cart install. Do you have a way to check VTF I would also check thisn prior to spinning a record as if the counterweight moved in transit it could be way off. The VPI manual is pretty good and if you have not read this I would encourage that. All of this stuff is not rocket science, contrary to what most audio dealers would have you believe. I have heard good things about the Fremer DVD and at $30 it may not be a bad investment. Vinyl takes a little up front knowledge but after about a month of playing around you'll have all the basic skills you need.

who says the internet can't teach you stuffs;D

I'm already on that I took the heatsink off last night and check the cpu for scorching (had an AMD once go hot due to my negligence that scorched when getting hot) and it looks fine but who knows. I picked up artic silver yesterday for the reassemble. I found a local supplier for the fan and will be picking one up Friday (fingers crossed). Thanks for all the help folks

well it is most likely different given that the duet is 24/96 capable but I am sure they did a great job with it.

could be a great portable/college rig for under $700 all in