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Post by canetoad on Sept 12, 2014 22:25:19 GMT
Another vote for the Ankaka here, superb sound. +1.  |
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Post by MikeMusic on Sept 13, 2014 8:28:09 GMT
Just for my own sanity...
When I went on Stan's website the price was listed as £262.50
Couldn't see a way of dropping the cables, should have asked Stan !
Price stayed the same.
Going there now it starts at £225 with a drop down for cables but no "no cables" option
And for fun PayPal would not work for me under Chrome so I went to IE to buy it
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Post by John on Sept 13, 2014 8:42:14 GMT
Ahh that explains it Maybe Stan will send without cables if you ask him and refund difference
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Post by stanleyb on Sept 13, 2014 9:02:35 GMT
It was £300 but like all things has gone up a little in price. It was actually £250 plus shipping and VAT for first time customers. It is now £225 plus shipping and VAT. The drop was in line with the 10% increase in the £ to U$ exchange rate since I paid for the components. The price of £262 quoted by Soren included a TOSLINK and Coax lead. It is not the price of the DAC by itself. |
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Post by stanleyb on Sept 13, 2014 9:05:53 GMT
Just for my own sanity... When I went on Stan's website the price was listed as £262.50 Couldn't see a way of dropping the cables, should have asked Stan ! Price stayed the same. Going there now it starts at £225 with a drop down for cables but no "no cables" option And for fun PayPal would not work for me under Chrome so I went to IE to buy it That's new to me. The cables are optional extras. I just checked and I can place an order without including the cables. Send me an email and let me know what you are after exactly, including the fascia colour. I can then sort you out with the correct info, including any repeat customer discount if you are a returning customer. |
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Post by MikeMusic on Sept 13, 2014 9:22:27 GMT
Thanks Stan
I was going to email you shortly
(Just tried all sorts of things to get back to what I had yesterday and I can't !)
Edit
And it's here and I'm just about to try it out
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Post by MartinT on Sept 13, 2014 10:57:43 GMT
Sorry to have caused confusion, Stan. It was Mike what did it! |
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Post by tony on Sept 15, 2014 11:55:54 GMT
Bill,
I use a BM2 in conjunction with a 140ah car battery. Stan sent me a battery optimised chip that improved the sound for very little money. Might be worth contacting Stan? The budget battery pack Stan recommended for the BM2 works well but I prefer the big car battery-I think it sounds more dynamic and less polite.
The caiman 2 did indeed sound very good in my set up but I feel the BM2 has great synergy with my system and preferred cans.
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Post by MikeMusic on Sept 15, 2014 13:04:05 GMT
Well. Difficult.
My command of English may not be good enough.
First tried the Caiman on Saturday, brand new and stone cold out of the box.
It was 'different' to the Bushmaster, 'nicer'.
Which seemed cobblers and not that good a description
I spent all day working and listening to various albums just enjoying the Caiman supplying music from the Pioneer CD
Left them both plugged in and came back to them both today.
Both auditioned with the Ankaka battery
Having compared a few tracks from Brand X - Is there anything about. 10/10 on the Mikeometer, so pure pleasure
I have only a little to add to Saturday
The Caiman doesn't 'do' anything, it seems to let more of the music out.
The music flows better and is more 'joined up'.
The VFM of the Bushmaster is beyond doubt. superb piece of kit with the Ankaka driving it.
Need to do a sales spiel as I now have one for sale !
If you want to allow more of that wonderful signal through though and stretch to the extra dough it has to be the Caiman.
And you must get the Ankaka battery which makes it even better.
Stan kindly offered to take the cables back too. So happy bunny, even the sun is shining
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Post by John on Sept 15, 2014 14:25:12 GMT
Great news Mike the Caiman is amazing value to performance DAC
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Post by John on Sept 15, 2014 14:27:03 GMT
Bill, I use a BM2 in conjunction with a 140ah car battery. Stan sent me a battery optimised chip that improved the sound for very little money. Might be worth contacting Stan? The budget battery pack Stan recommended for the BM2 works well but I prefer the big car battery-I think it sounds more dynamic and less polite. The caiman 2 did indeed sound very good in my set up but I feel the BM2 has great synergy with my system and preferred cans. What budget battery pack did you try it with I only tried it with lower powered motorbike batteries So maybe will get a decent battery if it beat the Ankaka |
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Post by tony on Sept 17, 2014 13:18:38 GMT
Stan linked to it on AOS. It was a camcorder battery pack just over £20 if memory serves. Also worked very well powering an original bantum.
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Post by MikeMusic on Sept 17, 2014 13:19:54 GMT
Confirmation from a second test
The Bushmaster is fabulous. The Caiman is even better and a keeper
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Post by MartinT on Sept 17, 2014 14:01:11 GMT
The Caiman-II steps into that sound of greatness you get with proper high end equipment. Remarkable for the money.
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Post by Tweaker on Sept 17, 2014 17:12:47 GMT
Some more run in. WOW, i don`t reaally know how to praise it high enough. I not only hear detail, but layers in well known music, i have never heard before. And digital artefacts seems to be totally ABSENT. It sometimes make you think that something is missing. But it really is small artefacts and "resonances" that is absent, but apparent on other DAC`s
I could babble on for days.
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Post by MikeMusic on Sept 21, 2014 15:22:14 GMT
I returned the cables to Stan and got a credit instantly.
Thanks very much Stan
Caiman still rocking on.
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Post by John on Sept 21, 2014 16:15:53 GMT
Great Stan decent
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Post by MartinT on Oct 23, 2014 17:52:12 GMT
I've just received a couple of Stan's optical cables to match my Caiman-II. These cables are superb, far and away the best constructed optical cables I've seen and what's more they sound better too. They feature high purity, high bandwidth fibres and only cost £16.66 + tax. Every time I think I've found the Caiman-II's limits it just keeps getting better. It helps that it has two optical inputs, too. I really enjoy TV sound from my Sky box, as well as audio streaming from the RPi and Blu-ray player.
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Post by John on Oct 23, 2014 18:38:21 GMT
Amazing value cables I must try a Blue ray player with Optical out I seen the LG do optical out and think they do WAV
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Post by tony on Dec 20, 2014 20:26:50 GMT
Moved from the Bushmaster 2 to the Caiman 2. Stan had subsequently sent me a battery optimised chip for the BM2 chip that I installed and reaped the benefits from on cans and in my main rig.Recently upgraded across the board-speakers/headphones/HPA.
An Improvement...end of.
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