DAC Opinions

bimmerman....

One moment you were "bubbling for joy" with your new acquistion and the next ..... ?

Guess you may have a valid reason to take that path....you do not have to completely disappear from this forum....you still can contribute your views.

And maybe stream down your gear to a minimal and enjoy your passion.

Chill out and you may see things from a different perspective.

You take care.

cheers

uih.. biar betul encik bimmer??

Things are like that..
When you find out that the thing that you have been waited for so long, bought it and disappointed with the outcome, the heart will be broken.
But one thing for sure, if you did not buy it, your heart will still feel unease till today because it is the thing that you wanted. It feels incomplete and not satisfying.
Now that everything has concluded, life is back to normal.

U hit the nail on the head. I was exactly in the same situation. Bought stuff that I thought would upgrade the system but in the end did not work out. Multiple times. So, went away to hibernate for a few years.

Now back again but a little more cautious. Also more open minded I think.

He'll be back.

car o scope wrote:Things are like that..
When you find out that the thing that you have been waited for so long, bought it and disappointed with the outcome, the heart will be broken.
But one thing for sure, if you did not buy it, your heart will still feel unease till today because it is the thing that you wanted. It feels incomplete and not satisfying.
Now that everything has concluded, life is back to normal.

Regards,
Joe Ling

Congratulations Bimmerman Bro, Now you only need to enjoy your music. Buy as many good CD as you can. But please come to these forum sometimes & give some good advise.

Alamak!!! The PMs keep coming in... Ok, just one more for the road guys.

Disappointed??? Hell no!! Where did Car-o-scope get the notion?

I now have 2 flovours of redbook playback. Got that valve magic and got High Defination redbook. The more I listen to the Levinson, the more i'm drawn into the music and stuff i've never heard before. Hell, I even connected the Levinson to my Marantz CD63 and it's amazing! Listened till 2am last night and wanted to call in sick this morning so that I can listen somemore.

So with that i've reached journeys end. Nothing more to add, nothing more to desire. Well it better be the end because i'm stone broke. So i'm going to stay away from these forums like an alcoholic staying away from alcohol.

You guys might hear from me again in the for sale section when the bank threatens to foreclose.

Adieu! (and in cantonese too)

P/S: The Levinson has what it terms "a smart fifo buffer". What it does is that it takes any digital signal, good or bad, high in jitter or low in jitter and buffers it, reconstructs and jitter corrects it before doing it's DAC duties. In practice, it works!!! Use any lousy RCA cable or cheap CD or DVD player as a transport and you can be assured of a low jitter performance from the Levinson. What the cheap CD or DVD player can extract from the CD is another matter.

how yeah!!

I have been busy listening to the CD. wow. it is great to listen to the stockfish label like Chris Jones - roadhouse, steve strauss, chesky 10 best, tacet, FIM, etc. inc the XRCD, HDCD, XFCD ?

the cd chris jones puts my system like the KLIAV setup lol. now waiting for my sd card hifi player to come in from china. lol. waiting.

hi joeling,

why not give us a review of your DAC19mk3 representing the emerging.

So sorry for the misunderstanding. So you've reached audio nirvana...I envy u.

Regards,
Joe Ling

Well, for one thing, it's in my living system taking the output from the apple tv - not an ideal environment for critical listening & therefore not a fair review. So, I'll just leave it be. Sorry about that.

chua55 wrote:hi joeling,

why not give us a review of your DAC19mk3 representing the emerging.

Regards,
Joe Ling

Hi i am new member here. May I ask who is bimmerman and what happened to him? 8 years ago I also had a grand uncle who reach audio nirvana. It's literally nirvana because he died in his listening chair.

bimmerman wrote:Only one thing is for sure and that one significant thing is I decided to quit Hifi yesterday. It's all a waste of money and time. Bye everyone, it was fun while it lasted.

Bimmer,
I got it from here!! hahahahaha..

Not going to try that 390S ??

Hi guys,

Been reading through the pages, & just wondering.
If I intend to convert my ht setup to a stereo setup, what would be the first move?
Get a DAC and play from my DVD player, or get a CDp first to start off?
I'm still going to use back my a/v reciever for the amplification for the time being.
For a budget of 1,000 or so what are my options?

Cheers.

finger wrote:Hi guys,

Been reading through the pages, & just wondering.
If I intend to convert my ht setup to a stereo setup, what would be the first move?
Get a DAC and play from my DVD player, or get a CDp first to start off?
I'm still going to use back my a/v reciever for the amplification for the time being.
For a budget of 1,000 or so what are my options?

Cheers.

My opinion.. if between CDP and DAC, I will go for CDP 1st.

And that would be excellent advice caroscope!

car o scope / landy ,

owrite .. within 1K which would you cdp would you go for?
I have no idea where to start.

secondly, wouldn't my DVDp act as a transport or is it just cr*p compared to a dedicated CDp?

finger wrote:Hi guys,

Been reading through the pages, & just wondering.
If I intend to convert my ht setup to a stereo setup, what would be the first move?
Get a DAC and play from my DVD player, or get a CDp first to start off?
I'm still going to use back my a/v reciever for the amplification for the time being.
For a budget of 1,000 or so what are my options?

Cheers.

Someone's selling a Behringer Ultramatch SRC2496 AD/DA converter ... if u get this baby , you can almost get away using a DVD player as a CD transport, digital out into the Behringer and then back into your amp.

Only catch is, the Behringer only outputs Balanced connections. So you'll need a custom XLR to RCA cable done (which is not rocket science), or just use the headphone monitoring output via a headphone to RCA cable (not so recommended).

Or if u are feeling adventurous and your AV amp can accept 24bit/96KHz digital signals, u can use the Behringer as an upsampler to maniulate the digital signal and feed the upsampled digital into the AV amp.... who knows, you might like how it sounds by cooking the bits further.

Thx mugenfoo for the input and suggestion.

So basically the SRC2496 upsample the digital signal output as analog via XLR or just digital back to my AV reciever?

What would you put this SRC2496 unit as? More of an up-sampler or a Dac?

Honestly i think it's a lil bit too "adventurous" for me at the moment.

I favour the acquisition of a DAC, considering your budget, unless if you would prefer very old CDP, e.g. Philip CD304. With a DAC you have the options of other kind of digital media input, other than your DVD.

finger wrote:Thx mugenfoo for the input and suggestion.

So basically the SRC2496 upsample the digital signal output as analog via XLR or just digital back to my AV reciever?

What would you put this SRC2496 unit as? More of an up-sampler or a Dac?

Honestly i think it's a lil bit too "adventurous" for me at the moment.

That Behringer is a real bang for your $$$, it can do DAC, can do ADC, can do SRC (sample rate converter, digital in to digital out at different format, can change the bit formats from SPDIF to AES/EBU and also strip the copy-protect bit flags ... ahem ahem).

The only things it wont do are polish your silverware, wax your car, or take your pet Chihuahua for a stroll in the park.

Wow..I'm amazed at this Behringer.. it caught my attention everytime I was at Pasar Rd.
Nope.. I've already got 3 DAC's (Philips based DAC) to suffice me a lifetime.
ADC?..wonder its worth the purpose for LP to CD rip function.

[quote="yyleong2u"][quote="kp93300"]My 2 sens

I am a user of Monica dac and promitheus DAC from Nicholas.
Both are made in Malaysia .
Please audition them if you can.
Both of these has a analogue type of sound .

Hi yyleong2u,
Sorry for the late reply.
I have both monica and promitheus DAC. Monica is bought in the previous version and has been modded extensively according to the forum.
Promitheus is the standard dac without any mod.
I like both dac but promitheus drive F5 ( about 20 W class a from pass forum in the diy audio ) better with a lightspeed clone as passive pre.
Monica needs a pre to drive the F5 effectively.

With the Truepath( Tripath chip ) as power amp, both sounds very good.

With the correct matching, i am very happy with both.
Both has a analogue type of sound and there is no lack of details and air despite NOS . Bass is a strong point in both.
The vocal is more forward with promitheus but monica appears to have wider soundstage.
The noise level in both is very very low and music appear from a black background.
i believe these malaysian products are underrated by any malaysian hi fi kaki.
cheers
there is no clear winner between these 2 dac.

kp93300

KP.....

These are my views;

Never heard of these DAC's until i was looking around for a unit myself. Base on the WEB pricing it is in a similar bracket to DAC's from the emerging markets.

Have not seen these DAC's in most of the Audio shops that i have visited. Believe its either sold at a specific shop or via the WEB. Not much reviews of these MY DAC's. Guess its "word of mouth concept. Correct me if am wrong.

What would be the tech comparison against the competitor's DAC ?

Could you share how did you purchase these units, did you compare against any other make before decding to go with these DAC's?

Would be good if "Nicholas" could intro his product in this forum or try selling his DAc's in this forum.

That would give possible DAC buyers a choice.

cheers

Hi wingman,
I purchase the DAC by contacting via diyparadise and promitheus web page.
My interest start when I started on the diy journey. Monica was cheap and the forum members extremely helpful. I bought it and is pleasantly surprised by the sound quality. i relegated an old AMC CD6 to transport duty and never felt any need to use another old krell kps 30i that is in the store room for many months already.

This make me realise that non oversampling dac is the way for me. It sound so natural and the feeling of the singer in the room is hard to get by my other dac.

I realise that buying a dac means buying into the sound signature of the designer . A bit of simple diy mod can get you closer to your dream and nirvana at much lower cost that buying expensive product.

I bought promitheus because i like the philosophy of good power supply as promoted by Nicholas.The ability to swap op amps, and the flexibilty of changing the output voltage from 1 to 4 V are the pluses for me. Further more , I like the idea of no output caps because transparency is what i am after.
cheers

kp93300

http://sites.thestar.com.my/audio/story.asp?file=/2008/2/11/audiofile/11monica

http://www.soundstage.com/diwhy/diwhy200801.htm

http://www.tnt-audio.com/sorgenti/monica2_e.html

http://www.tnt-audio.com/sorgenti/monica2_e.html

Click on the above links to view reviews on the Monica DAC.

Gave me an idea for a truly single box solution for my computer player-add a Monica 3 DAC instead as shown in pic above and do away with an outboard DAC.

Hi Tycham,
You bought the buffalo dac ? What price? Heard good news about the chip
kp93300

Hi everybody, I am new. I am using an old model Audiomeca DAC Ambrosia if not mistaken which is said to be 20 bits. Will the Behringer SRC2496 help to improve the performance?

kp93300 wrote:Hi Tycham,
You bought the buffalo dac ? What price? Heard good news about the chip
kp93300

Hi

No I didn't. The pic was taken from a fellow forumer in AudioAsylum. Yes, I heard very positive feedback from the guy who uses it. Sorry can't be of any help.

Was rummaging through some Audio forums and came across "Xindax DAC 5" using AD1852 chip 24bit/192Khz and has XLR connectivity, two Torodial Tranny, 6922 (E88CC) electron Tube.

Anyone here has / had any experience with this DAC ? Views would be appreciated as well.

cheers

I've browsed through numerous links and found that most of them comes with a headphone jack. I guess I might be on the wrong track of my search.

I would like to get a NOS DAC which serves no other purpose than a DAC itself with a coax input to stereo rca.

Came across VALAB, any guess or inputs that this DAC is a good to go?

cmboy,
mind sharing what philips based DAC you're having now?
Would there be others that might do better around 600~900bucks?

Hi, everyone there. I been to CMY last Sunday and spotted a cute tiny 24 bit/192 KHz upsampling DacMagic dac from Cambridge. Took the unit back on loan. I coupled this dac to my CEC TL51X and initial impression is the sound is quite good in term of sound stage, separation, transparentcy, etc from the box but was not overly impressed as the the sound is a bit too digital to my taste (currently I am using a 20 bits Audiomeca dac, and both CEC and Audiomeca are well-known for their analogue products).
I surfed the net and found many rave reviews about this dac, and I chanced upon a forumer/reviewer putting his review unit of Behringer SRC 2492 in btwn his transport and dac, meaning using SRC 2492 as a upsampler only and brat about the great sound improvement to his system. So I decided to give the DacMagin a second chance, and connected it in btwn my CEC transport and run the digital out from DacMagin to my Audiomeca digital in all on coaxial interconnects. The improvement is not subtle but very emphatic and improvements in spades. I probably will just retain the unit and use it as a upsampler in the chain. That goes to say we must all keep up with the new technologie, and digital source upsamplering in the way to go for me.
I think may be I should also loan a single box upsampling CDP like Cambridge 840 from CMY, just for comparison.
Cheers,

Minimizing the "middleman" factor and going with the CDP with upsampling capabilities would net you better results.

cheers

asy166168 wrote:Hi, everyone there. I been to CMY last Sunday and spotted a cute tiny 24 bit/192 KHz upsampling DacMagic dac from Cambridge. Took the unit back on loan. I coupled this dac to my CEC TL51X and initial impression is the sound is quite good in term of sound stage, separation, transparentcy, etc from the box but was not overly impressed as the the sound is a bit too digital to my taste (currently I am using a 20 bits Audiomeca dac, and both CEC and Audiomeca are well-known for their analogue products).
I surfed the net and found many rave reviews about this dac, and I chanced upon a forumer/reviewer putting his review unit of Behringer SRC 2492 in btwn his transport and dac, meaning using SRC 2492 as a upsampler only and brat about the great sound improvement to his system. So I decided to give the DacMagin a second chance, and connected it in btwn my CEC transport and run the digital out from DacMagin to my Audiomeca digital in all on coaxial interconnects. The improvement is not subtle but very emphatic and improvements in spades. I probably will just retain the unit and use it as a upsampler in the chain. That goes to say we must all keep up with the new technologie, and digital source upsamplering in the way to go for me.
I think may be I should also loan a single box upsampling CDP like Cambridge 840 from CMY, just for comparison.
Cheers,

You are right, upsampling is the way to go in today's digital technology, a lot of us here do not know the magic it can create from our long overdue 16/44 red book format and an upsampler unit like the Behringer SRC 2496 is a no brainer that will indefinitely improve any transport/dac combo out there irregardless of brand and spec be it 16, 20 18 or 24 bit...

Its like taking a jump from a 2 Megapixel camera to an 8 Megapixel camera, same picture but everything is clearer and finer...

asy166168 wrote: a forumer/reviewer putting his review unit of Behringer SRC 2492 in btwn his transport and dac, meaning using SRC 2492 as a upsampler only and brat about the great sound improvement to his system.

Mind sharing which forum?

asy166168 wrote:
The improvement is not subtle but very emphatic and improvements in spades(♠?).

I'm not so sure about upsampling redbook CD. I don't really hear a marked improvement. Just different.

Irrelevant or not, the picture below shows a football in 8 Megapixels and the second picture is 2 Megapixels upsampled to 8 Megapixels. (Images cropped and displayed at pixel level) As you can see, the 2MP image upsampled to 8MP is nowhere near the original 8MP in image quality.

16bit/44.1 Upsampling, non-upsampling? I don't know. But 24/96 and 24/192, you betcha! You decide.

DAC's from various manufacturers carry different DAC chipsets, Wolfson, Cirrus, Burr Brown and Analog Devices.

I have read in forums /reviews that the Wolfson and Burr Brown chipsets stand out, also a preferred choice by major audio manufacturers.

Intergrating the right DAC chip into the manufacturer poprietry circuit enhances the sound quality or the opposite.

DAC should be not coloured with any other feature other then its original purpose. Other features should be designated to the CDP or the AMP. Thats my take and my preference.

cheers

Landy wrote:I'm not so sure about upsampling redbook CD. I don't really hear a marked improvement. Just different.

Irrelevant or not, the picture below shows a football in 8 Megapixels and the second picture is 2 Megapixels upsampled to 8 Megapixels. (Images cropped and displayed at pixel level) As you can see, the 2MP image upsampled to 8MP is nowhere near the original 8MP in image quality.

16bit/44.1 Upsampling, non-upsampling? I don't know. But 24/96 and 24/192, you betcha! You decide.

What you've pointed out and shown in the example with the photos are fine example of the upsampling/non-unsampling debate. I've 'regurgitated' some info from these pages http://www.lampizator.eu/lampizator/TDA1541%20corner/TDA1541.html on this issue. The authors and the diy-ers have interesting points to ponder, very interesting.

I suppose you are correct, difference, definitely, marked improvement, depends on the ears (or to the lucky Golden Ears). I've a Benchmark Dac1 hooked up to Sony DVD/SACD player (as transport) which when compared to the Simaudio Equinox or the 840C or the SA7001 KI sounded ever so endearing for some songs but too clinical on others and visa versa. On some songs, the Equinox sounds so 'there' (for lack of a better word), everything sound right. For my book at least, the 840C is a smooth allrounder for the price point.

My 2 sens.

Cheers,

zb

Nah what I meant was to arrive at 24/96/192 whichever possible from the basic 16/44...

Did it on a 16 bit TDA 1541A dac as well as an 18 bit AD 1865N DAC, the improvements are well marked but once again depends solely on one's preference. Very debatable to many still but I recently found out that there is more than just to the upsampling rate or wordlength itself, ( a lot of current modern DAC's do that conversion internally in the DAC itself) thus its the digital filters that are present in the upsampling unit itself that does justice to the overall sound improvement if any...

Landy wrote:I'm not so sure about upsampling redbook CD. I don't really hear a marked improvement. Just different.

Irrelevant or not, the picture below shows a football in 8 Megapixels and the second picture is 2 Megapixels upsampled to 8 Megapixels. (Images cropped and displayed at pixel level) As you can see, the 2MP image upsampled to 8MP is nowhere near the original 8MP in image quality.

16bit/44.1 Upsampling, non-upsampling? I don't know. But 24/96 and 24/192, you betcha! You decide.

Hi guys, got some time on my hands and a PC with Photoshop handy. So I thought i'd do a better illustration of Redbook VS Redbook Upsamled to 24/192 and native 24/192. Hope you don't mind. Here goes...



This is 16bit 44.1Khz CD quality. The orchestra's all there but a little constricted



Then came 24bit 192Khz. More air, big soundstage, higher resolution, high defination, timbre, texture, harmonics, can even see that boldspot, cleavage and the list goes on...



And finally 16bit 44.1Khz upsampled to 24bit 192Khz. Wow, the soundstage equals 24/192, more air but wait, something's missing... the resolution is no better than 16/44.1, where's the timbre, texture, harmonics and all the good stuff?

And that is my take on the subject. Enjoy the music guys!

Hi, guys. I returned the CA DacMagic today as I felt that I may be trading musicality for accuracy. At the price of less than a decent pair of interconnect, I may be asking too much. But I want more definative improvement, so I have to keep looking.

hahahahaha....excellent illustration I must say ...but like I mentioned earlier, I discovered that there's more to just resolution for a better sound cause further complex interpolation of the data can only be performed by highly advanced digital filtering...possible only via higher end equipment manufacturer such as DCS...

Landy wrote:Hi guys, got some time on my hands and a PC with Photoshop handy. So I thought i'd do a better illustration of Redbook VS Redbook Upsamled to 24/192 and native 24/192. Hope you don't mind. Here goes...



This is 16bit 44.1Khz CD quality. The orchestra's all there but a little constricted



Then came 24bit 192Khz. More air, big soundstage, higher resolution, high defination, timbre, texture, harmonics, can even see that boldspot, cleavage and the list goes on...



And finally 16bit 44.1Khz upsampled to 24bit 192Khz. Wow, the soundstage equals 24/192, more air but wait, something's missing... the resolution is no better than 16/44.1, where's the timbre, texture, harmonics and all the good stuff?

And that is my take on the subject. Enjoy the music guys!

Sorry guys to come around again,

If I would like to play around with an external DAC, what would be a good starting point to start with. Source will come from my DVD player hence I'll not need a USB input.

.

One have to consider the speaker and amplification combination even if u think u have gotten the best/practical/useable/future proof dac plus transport combi! The limitation factor could still be how the music is presented to u, via the final output, ie. the sound reproduction's final stage via the speaker system(not just merely a pair of speakers u may like to have for convenient sake). If the final stage is just a pair of 3" driver bookshelves then the effect to put up a great sounding reproduction is merely wasted!

While i mostly concur with Uncle Vic that the potential of a top notch source (DAC in your case) would be limited by lesser amplification and speakers, one should never skimp on your source. Somewhere down the road when you have the means to upgrade your amp and speakers you'll thank yourself for maxing out on your initial decision to buy that spanking DAC.

As for the 3" bookshelf. One of the most lifelike musical reproductions I have ever heard was on a pair of 3" studio monitors. Auratones I think they were. Can't recall. Partnered with a 15" subwoofer of course and within the confines of a recording studio.

Currently my setup was towards home cinema and lately got slightly interested to turn partially to a stereo setup.
My gears are;
Yahama RX-V1800 a/v Reciever
Yamaha DVD-S1700 dvd player with SACD
Pairing with a Klipsch Ref IV RF52 floorstander
At this point I'm playing on my DVD player connecting with a vdh D102 mk3, which it's the 3rd so far the best cable I could afford on top of the Name and Audioquest copperhead.
Would like to seek some opinions on an external DAC for a start.
Or would it be better to get a CDp instead?
Cheers.

Get both

=.='' pijak eh!