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Post by Deleted on Jan 9, 2020 21:42:41 GMT
Welcome to TAS. I see you are using a Cambridge Audio CXC transport, excellent piece of kit, I used to have one myself. Yes, it's pne of the last transports which are custom built for the purpose and not just a repurposed DVD drive. Great piece of kit and fantastic build qulaity for the price. Superb bit of kit for the money and I found it embarrassed some much more expensive kit with a good DAC. |
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Post by digitaldufferme on Jan 9, 2020 23:44:36 GMT
Its good you have that experience. My DAC is a low cost Chi-Fi SMSL M8A which is great for the money but it will be one of the components I'm looking to upgrade along with a streamer. Looking at the Lindemann Limetree offerings, Shiitt Audio and an Aussie offering which is well regarded called the Giessler Fein II.
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Post by Slinger on Jan 10, 2020 0:09:39 GMT
Its good you have that experience. My DAC is a low cost Chi-Fi SMSL M8A which is great for the money but it will be one of the components I'm looking to upgrade along with a streamer. Looking at the Lindemann Limetree offerings, Shiitt Audio and an Aussie offering which is well regarded called the Giessler Fein II. You've wandered into a nest of SMSL fans here. We love 'em. I had an M8a, it's a great little DAC, and I still use a Q5 Pro with my PC. I've also got a couple of SMSL Sanskrit 6ths knocking around somewhere too. |
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Post by digitaldufferme on Jan 10, 2020 6:42:44 GMT
I've had it for several years and want to upgrade for no good reason in all honesty. The Lindermann Limetree Network player shows it a very clean pair of heels in my rig I'd have to say. I'll likely keep it especially if I get something like the Yggdrasil which doesn't do DSD for the rare moments I play that format.
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Post by MartinT on Jan 10, 2020 6:46:56 GMT
if I get something like the Yggdrasil If you're thinking about that then you should also consider the LKS (which I use), the Mytek Brooklyn and the Matrix X-SABRE Pro. |
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Post by digitaldufferme on Jan 11, 2020 9:01:44 GMT
Unlikely I'd buy those units as the warranty for those locally wouldn't be great but I'm sure they would be worthy contenders. I'm looking to move away from Sabre Dacs since I have one. Both the Lindemann (3 year warranty) and the Giessler (2 year warranty) use AKM and the Yggy (5 year warranty) is a custom implementation on R2R so would provide a different flavour for me to explore.
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Post by John on Jan 11, 2020 16:13:08 GMT
Sounds like a good way to go
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Post by digitaldufferme on Jan 11, 2020 21:24:10 GMT
One question to ask about the value of DAC design. I'm not a believer in XLR being intrinsically superior to well shielded RCA for common household hifi run distances, at least thats been my experience to date. Is there any technical advantage for a dual DAC chip design with fully balanced outputs running in dual mono though? Not being an EE, this has so far gone over my head. If this is not the appropriate way/place to post, please let me know and I'll delete and repost. Cheers
Roy
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Post by MartinT on Jan 11, 2020 22:56:12 GMT
I'm looking to move away from Sabre Dacs since I have one. Both the Lindemann (3 year warranty) and the Giessler (2 year warranty) use AKM and the Yggy (5 year warranty) is a custom implementation on R2R so would provide a different flavour for me to explore. That's fair enough. I never liked the older Sabres very much, finding them glassy towards brittle. I like the 9038 chipset a lot, though. The potential it has is incredible detail retrieval while retaining depth, texture and not going harsh. My LKS in stock form is not perfect, but with a new clock and some capacitor changes, its performance is quite stunning. What it highlights, though, is that there is nothing at all wrong with the 9038 - implementation is everything. |
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Post by MartinT on Jan 11, 2020 22:59:49 GMT
One question to ask about the value of DAC design. I'm not a believer in XLR being intrinsically superior to well shielded RCA for common household hifi run distances, at least thats been my experience to date. Is there any technical advantage for a dual DAC chip design with fully balanced outputs running in dual mono though? These are two different issues. The XLR thing is again down to implementation. In my LKS, XLR output sounds a lot better. My buffer converts from balanced to RCA for my power amp, which is single-ended only. The dual-mono DAC chip topology is more about channel separation and, most important, resolution accuracy by paralleling up the DACs inside each chip to cancel out errors. |
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Post by digitaldufferme on Jan 12, 2020 10:36:37 GMT
Thank you that makes sense.
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Post by petea on Jan 12, 2020 11:21:49 GMT
A belated welcome from me too. And an interesting discussion too.
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