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The State of DACSES


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I think that messing with vintage was worth it when DS dacs were still super nasty. Vintage multibit would get you much better timbre, but it's not the last word in a lot of technicalities. Not to mention that you'd need to dick around with USB->SPDIF converters.

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4 hours ago, Aura said:

Ric - what newer options are you comparing against? Also still using an unmodified 1100 in the speaker rig. i can’t say i have issues with imaging or instrument location (this is with Pioneer M22 + Lowther DX65). soundstage could be a bit wider. 

This is a only with a variety mid-level headphones and usually with the Peak-Volcano, so take everything with a grain of salt. Honestly this is comparing with not current DACs themselves and yes, Sigma-Deltas, such as the old Lavry DA10 and Parasound vDAC v2. Admittedly, the romantic jump back, was disappointing enough I may not have given enough time to readjust. I could give another try, but until I can get rid of some necessary video gear due to shelter in place, I don’t have the space to setup full rack sized gear. Thus it’s mostly iFi iDSD Black Label for headphones currently. And AirPod Pros. So just ignore me. 

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I still rock a Parasound 1100HD with the now probably unobtanium Cetoole's discrete output stage as my primary DAC. Recently had a Schiit Gungnir for comparison and I thought the Parasound didn't embarrass itself. Sure, the Schiit sounds more detailed and airier but it lacks the dynamics and lusher tone that the Parasound has. The Gungnir also had an extremely hot output so it was a lot of pain to work with my sensitive speakers and headphone, even through its single ended output. 

I'll probably stick with multibit for now. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I’m perpetually aboard the DAC train, looking for a way off. My current operating theory is that enlightenment lies in feeding high bit rate DSD from Roon via HQPlayer to the cheapest DAC that technically works. I will update the dacses faithful once I realize that theory is wrong.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 9/13/2020 at 11:12 PM, Sherwood said:

I will update the dacses faithful once I realize that theory is wrong.

That time is now.  The Soncoz LA-QXD1 I purchased is pure garbage, and I can't believe I ever thought it would be a good idea.  It gibbers and pops constantly, loses sync whenever my AC condenser cycles on, and defaults to minimum volume every time it does so.  The interface is inscrutable, and I had to find direct links to the driver downloads through the Wayback Machine (!!) because the manufacturer's site is currently down.  

I ended up just buying the thing I wanted in the first place, the RME dac.

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