Contrastique

Hey Terry, welcome! Hmmm, so 3rd forum where we meet...lol... Hope you're doing well and everything.

Cuddle-parties...yeah...heard about them a while ago. Pretty sad there's actually a "need" for these kind of things. I understand the point of cuddling but that you have to swerve to people you don't know to get cuddled/ cuddle is really very sad. Not pathetic but sad. The chicken pox thing does make sense though in its own weird sounding way.

HaPpY BiRtHdAy!!!!

And that would mean getting an external soundcard which has WordClock or SuperClock input in order to slave it as the soundcard in the MBP probably doesn't have that feature... To use it without that mod would be a waste of such expensive device. Too bad.

What I read about it is looks very impressive. One thing that took a while for me to find is whether it has balanced as well as SE outputs. I think it has, but can anyone confirm? I also read about a price of

I guess the Northstar is off the list as it has no XLR outputs (and that means it can't provide the Beta with a balanced signal, right?) and as I would like to experiment with that in the future it would be a no-go. The Electrocompaniet is the most beautiful of them (imo) and the Bel Canto DAC3 appeals to me as well from what I've read although it looks rather strange. The Azur looks nice as well, but I don't really need a CDP as I already have one and don't have the intention to keep on using it when I get my MBP, at least not with my hps. To adress the talk we had about the optical out of the MBP, using the internal soundcard or not, I had a chat with a friend of mine yesterday and he said it does use the internal soundcard as it's not streaming data via optical but realtime music, which has to go through the soundcard. The soundcard however doesn't have to do anything with the sound so it probably won't change a lot but he said that, theoretically spoken, it does alter the sound as it has to stream realtime. Via Firewire or USB it streams data and that signal doesn't go through the soundcard thus bitperfect.

Haha nope!

Just came home from Roger Waters playing "Dark Side of the Moon".....wow....better than the one I saw last year, mosty because this was outside giving you more of a festival sphere and this time we were almost in front....sigh....I love Pink Floyd

Indeed indeed! The information here is overwhelming and I didn't expect to get an answer that none of these DACs are high-end. Makes my wallet scream for sure but not really when I thought longer about it. $3500 for a DAC..wow...I think I better save up for a mid-fi one that's good and fits my possible budget of MAX 2500, but preferably less first. When I get the urge to upgrade in let's say 5 to 10 yrs from now, okay, so be it. I'll hopefully earn more money by that time than I do now, I mean, I'm just 24 now. I've got all the time in the world to buy that stuff and like to listen to music more than equip in the end, although good equip can definitely cause you to enjoy the music more as it presents you with more. And when I ever reach that point of blowing that much money on it I think it's wiser to first join a CanJam or something Thank you all once more again for replying and taking the matter seriously. These answers are definitely something that HF can't provide me with. Look at the "Best SS-amp" thread; on HF I got like 12 responses, over here more than 200 I'll have to dive into these options you mentioned and go out on a search. Not now as the weekend is too busy (Roger Waters concert of DSOTM coming up tomorrow ) but it's soooo bloody interesting! Too bad photography is sucking up A LOT of my money, although I hope the business stuff is gonna work out well for me so I can fund that out of another pot than my private one. Hey darling, it's easy to talk about high-end expensive equip when not yet spending so, concerning that you're still way ahead of me I'm just willing to spend that kind of money, I just have to get it first haha! Anyways, thank you all again once more. I'm glad I've found this site, although I still also really like HF. Now, off to get myself ready to go out for dinner, yay!!!!

Edit: I know this can never be objective and there are a lot of DACs on the list. On every DAC I've read good things and not so good things but it's hard to draw any conclusion from that so thought this could be of some "start-up" help...

What falls in that category? I'm not sure this is the perfect timing considering my latest thread but I'm interested finding out more. I hope I don't annoy anyone here with all these questions. I mentioned the DA220 over in that thread and someone said it was not really "high-end" so then, what is? I've looked at several options but it's hard wading through all these opinions of other people spread out over numerous of threads, comparing apples to oranges or comparing only 2 or 3 options of what I've found so far. I've made a list of DACs gathered from the "Best DAC money can buy" over at hf and left out several models because of their lacking specs / sonically signature (to me). I wonder what your opinion would be on (some of) these DACs. Here's the list: 1: Lavry DA10 $975 Lavry Engineering - Unsurpassed Excellence 2: Corda Opera $1120 Meier-Audio 3: Lavry Blue $1325 Lavry Engineering 4: Grace m902 $1600 m902 reference headphone amplifier 5: Apogee Rosetta 200 $1900 Apogee Electronics: Products: ROSETTA 200 6: Stello DP200 $1995 stello.com. 7: LessLoss Dac $2000 http://www.lessloss.com/users.html 8: Slim Devices Transporter $2000 Slim Devices : Product Info : Transporter Wireless Network Music Player: No compromises. 9: Cyrus DAC-X $2200 Cyrus Audio 10: Electrocompaniet ECD1 $2250 Electrocompaniet: If music really matters 11: CEC DAC DX-71 MKII DA Converter Amplifier $2499 12: Bel Canto Dac-3 $2500 Bel Canto I decided to stretch the list to a price of $2500 as the Bel Canto does get some raving reviews. I'm not sure if I will stretch my budget that far but I'm open to a lot of things. Used is also an option anyways.... As for the sound I like, well, I like my Ultrasones..that should say enough for some / most of you I like speed, clarity, punch, I like it on the bright side I guess. Not warm, not lush or anything. Don't know if that helps to give you a clue on what I prefer qua sound but thought I should add nonetheless...

That surely makes sense

Lol haha! Well, I tend to read things more literally than I should. I've misread peoples words in the past before so...I'll look at your post differently from now (not sure if that's a good thing) Our history..hmm sounds interesting...don't remember a thing...lol...

Ah okay. I thought you meant it in a sarcastic way, my bad

Got it today actually so didn't buy it myself but anyways. It's pretty good fun and get's me of my lazy ass lol

What doesn't make sense if I do kind of have a DAC?

But you need a volume control on your Beta at all points, right? Good to know that that will work. That means I don't have to spend unnecessary money on a DAC which will be replaced in the futute anyways AND would give me the upportunity to compare the 2 amps and eventually the 2 DACs.

Hmm, thought about it some more and discussed with my bf. If this works what I'm about to say I don't need to have a build-in DAC in the Beta: My current amp has a DAC and has a "tape out" which is, if I get it correct, not an amplified signal. So I could use the DAC in the amp first and than start thinking about a dedicated external DAC....too complicated...no... ? Contact a builder, yes, that would actually be quite handy now to figure out the exact configurations and then I would have an idea of what to save up for.

Where do I start...First @ Elephas: It does not need to be small and it is no problem if the setup eventually contains 2 components. I will be using this while working behind the computer and even though it's a laptop I always sit on the same spot. What do you mean by Stello being overkill? Overkill for a computer as a source? It's eventually meant to be my end-all-killer-setup (LOL ) so money is not that much of a problem (within reasonable terms). @Pars: I don't know what I'm looking for myself exactly to tell you the truth. This will be my first real step into "highend" so to speak. I'm no diy-er so I will have to find someone who is willing to build all this for me. The built-in DAC still appeals to me for a couple of reasons: I don't immediately have to blow a lot of money on an external DAC. I didn't really meant to put a DAC in the Beta which is on par with the Beta itself as I will be buying an external DAC in the future anyways. Also, when I have that amp I can relax and go out on a search for a real good DAC and am able to compare it to what's in my Beta, figure out if that's the sound what I'm looking for or not. I noticed that a DAC makes a hell of a difference just recently so I would like to take my time for that and figure out what I exactly want. Also, when I get an external DAC it would be absolutely no hassle and no loss in qual to attach it to the Beta even though it already has a DAC in it as I no longer use it right? It's just to help me out on first sight and give me a longer time to figure out what to get as I don't really have to upportunity to listen to all these things where I live. (sorry for the long story with all these double remarks...)

Hmm okay, didn't know that...poeh... So an external DAC would not be so much more expensive than a built-in one (when thinking about a Stello DA220 $1200 or something) ? I will have to calculate soon what a Beta is gonna cost me (aprox) to see how much I've got to save up so that means figuring out soon what exactly needs to be in that thingy, with the help of you ofcourse . I've made one deal with my bf and that is I can buy anything I want but I have to save the double amount of what I'm about to spend....I already regret that deal I think .... nAh it's for the better uhuhm.

Why do you need a seperate PSU for the DAC when it's built in and uses the PSU from the amp? Sorry for my maybe dumb question... And if you would happen to have problems with the build-in DAC you could also revert to an external one without trouble..? (Ah yeah....enjoying first BBQ this year!!!!!)

Ah sweet! And yes, gotta love irony

Shhhtttt, my wallet feels safe again now so let's not wake any sleeping dogs, shall we Well, that's good to know. My brother still keeps insisting that the internal soundcard of the MBP will have its not so beneficial affect on the sound even if you use optical out, so I'm not sure what to make of that (he's into audio, like studying, making and producing music but he's stubborn as hell). I'm just gonna go with that and see what the difference in soundqual will be. It should sound the same as my CDP since it's connected via optical too and therefor uses the DAC in the amp, I guess..? I will also first let the DAC get built into the Beta and later on go out for a hunt on a better DAC. Keeps it more interesting for the future as there remains something to do some research for

Yeah, I saw it on the CanJam thread. Beautifully made. Suits your R10's very nicely. What's that silver plate on the right side? Does it have your named engraved in or something?