Leonardo Drummond Posted March 31, 2014 Report Share Posted March 31, 2014 (edited) Ok, so I know you guys don't like long posts or reviews, so I'll make this as short as possible. I recently got to spend some time with the PureDAC and found it to be a really interesting DAC. I'm very sorry if this ends up being an unwanted topic, but maybe someone's interested in it, so hey... maybe it's worth the risk. I found it to be a fine use of a Sabre chip. Sounds colder than both my Abrahamsen V6.0 and Electrocompaniet ECD-1, but comparatively more tonally correct. Mids take a step or two backwards and are more relaxed. The V6.0's mids, surprisingly, end up sounding harsh in comparison. It's just a very cohesive, linear and incredibly refined and transparent sound signature. Very detailed as well, but a bit less spacious than the other units I have here. All in all, I'd consider it clearly a step above both the Abrahamsen and the Electro, something that surprised me since I once compared the V6.0 to an EMM Labs DAC and found the difference to be really small. The PureDAC gives me a different personality when compared to my DACs, but to my ears it does sound better and more correct with most music genres and headphones I heard with it – especially so in the living room's system with the Jamo R907s. Apparently it doesn't have an extra gain stage and both the headphone amp and preamp are driven straight from the I/V converter of the DAC or something like that. Interestingly though, plugging my headphones into both headphone outs I found a completely different sound signature. It sounded mid-centric, slightly blurry and not nearly as refined as when it was used solely as a DAC feeding the GS-X. This was worse on the SE, but still present in the balanced outs. So to me it's an outstanding DAC and an ok headphone amp at the price. To wrap it up... a picture! Edited March 31, 2014 by Leonardo Drummond Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nopants Posted March 31, 2014 Report Share Posted March 31, 2014 some interesting choices with respect to the assembly inside I'm a bit wary of the (over)abundance of film caps too Is there any info on the chipset? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkam Posted April 1, 2014 Report Share Posted April 1, 2014 It uses the popular sabre chip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blessingx Posted April 4, 2014 Report Share Posted April 4, 2014 http://parttimeaudiophile.com/2014/04/04/headphone-bliss-b-m-c-audio-amazes-with-puredac/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leonardo Drummond Posted April 4, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 4, 2014 Interesting that he liked the headphone out... I didn't. It sounded almost the opposite of when I used it as a DAC feeding the GS-X. One thing about which we agree that I didn't put in this summarized "review" here is how it in fact is very silent with IEMs. To me it was no good anyway because I was stuck with the SE out for my Roxannes, and this output is seriously compromised (like he said as well), but it was indeed dead quiet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spritzer Posted April 4, 2014 Report Share Posted April 4, 2014 Is there anybody on that site that isn't retarded? They are very much in favor of "new and shiny" over anything that makes sense. Looked at some internal pics of this BMC, holy fuck this is bad. The agenda was clearly to use the cheapest crap known to man everywhere... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkam Posted April 4, 2014 Report Share Posted April 4, 2014 I like that the manual for thing even recommends you don't use the SE headphone out. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DefQon Posted April 4, 2014 Report Share Posted April 4, 2014 Removing all those el cheapo ceramic caps for at least a Vishay 3382 or Evox/Wima mkp's will bring some improvement to looks and maybe sound. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nopants Posted April 5, 2014 Report Share Posted April 5, 2014 or you could just use smd c0g's and have enough space on the board for vertical heatsinks instead of that angled bracket deal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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