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Post by MartinT on Nov 28, 2020 12:34:01 GMT
Martin's happy with his Chinese LKS, but the amount of tweaking he's done to make it musically convincing is rather mind blowing. Straight out of the box, going by what he has posted, I think he found it deficient in musically important ways. I'm not going to completely disagree with you, Jerry. What the LKS did was reveal that the rest of my system wasn't ready for it. It threw out copious amounts of detail which the system responded badly to. Yes, the LKS is modded but that has brought out more of its strengths, which were always there. That's why I like the ES9038 chips but I hesitate to recommend them as they can unbalance a system. It took treatment of power, isolation, speaker supports, cabling and especially grounding to get the system playing musically and revealing incredible nuances. Now I love the LKS and the system as a whole, but it took some pain getting there. |
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Post by julesd68 on Nov 28, 2020 15:00:42 GMT
Also the little Musical Fidelity V90. Bought on the recommendation of a friend for a bit over £100 it's astonishingly good, and punts many a 4 figure DAC into the weeds as far as I'm concerned. Me and my friend aren't alone here, Sam Tellig in Stereophile put it in Class A in company with DACs costing hugely more. Looking at this V90 I see it dates from 2013 - this is nearly antique in terms of DACs and whilst I'm not doubting its quality, of course it suggests that little worthwhile progress has been made in DAC design in the meantime! |
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Post by julesd68 on Nov 28, 2020 15:08:07 GMT
I've never really been sold on the idea of a streamer / DAC combo - I like the idea of being able to upgrade them individually as and when. I understand your concern Jules and I wouldn't have considered combined streamer & dac a couple of years ago. Whether it's a pricey Lindemann or more affordable Orchard Audio I'm finding the DACs they use are very good indeed If at the price point of the Orchard the cost is not high. I think also whilst we lose the flexibility to swap eg just the DAC, there are benefits in having the whole thing in one box - the interface between streamer and DAC is 100% known and can there be simple nd fully tested vs kit which must work with lots of other configurations. I'm really sold on truely balanced DACs feeding a balanced power amp - there isn't any great reason why such a combination should sound better than RCAs/single-ended but I'm have great success currently with balanced. Good points Clive, which I hadn't considered. The PecanPi Streamer Ultra looks like a reasonable option at $849 - I like the fact you get balanced / unbalanced outputs and a 5" screen. Purely in sonic terms, how does your PecanPi compare to your Chord / ATB combo? Have you tried it with a reclocker? |
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Post by MartinT on Nov 28, 2020 15:21:26 GMT
of course it suggests that little worthwhile progress has been made in DAC design in the meantime! I can't agree, the very latest DACs comprehensively reveal the limitations of LPs without a doubt in my mind. |
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Post by Clive on Nov 28, 2020 16:14:05 GMT
I understand your concern Jules and I wouldn't have considered combined streamer & dac a couple of years ago. Whether it's a pricey Lindemann or more affordable Orchard Audio I'm finding the DACs they use are very good indeed If at the price point of the Orchard the cost is not high. I think also whilst we lose the flexibility to swap eg just the DAC, there are benefits in having the whole thing in one box - the interface between streamer and DAC is 100% known and can there be simple nd fully tested vs kit which must work with lots of other configurations. I'm really sold on truely balanced DACs feeding a balanced power amp - there isn't any great reason why such a combination should sound better than RCAs/single-ended but I'm have great success currently with balanced. Good points Clive, which I hadn't considered. The PecanPi Streamer Ultra looks like a reasonable option at $849 - I like the fact you get balanced / unbalanced outputs and a 5" screen. Purely in sonic terms, how does your PecanPi compare to your Chord / ATB combo? Have you tried it with a reclocker? I’ve not yet made the comparison directly with my Lindemann amp. I was using another (good) amp in the system which is RCA phono only....this amp whilst great for AV is not as good with music so I didn’t feel a comparison was worthwhile. The Lindemann amp is much better with music but it only has a balanced input so the Qutest won’t play with it. I need to ship everything into my main system for these comparisons. I have a first gen Uptone reclocker to use with the ATB. I may get to this tomorrow afternoon/evening. |
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Post by jandl100 on Nov 28, 2020 16:33:57 GMT
Also the little Musical Fidelity V90. Bought on the recommendation of a friend for a bit over £100 it's astonishingly good, and punts many a 4 figure DAC into the weeds as far as I'm concerned. Me and my friend aren't alone here, Sam Tellig in Stereophile put it in Class A in company with DACs costing hugely more. Looking at this V90 I see it dates from 2013 - this is nearly antique in terms of DACs and whilst I'm not doubting its quality, of course it suggests that little worthwhile progress has been made in DAC design in the meantime! That does hinge on the word "worthwhile", as I am sure you intended! A very subjective term in this instance. I tend to prefer the older DACs, finding them to sound more like real music in the context of my system. The undoubted fact that many more modern DACs are vastly more capable technically bothers me not at all! Others come to a different conclusions in their own systems. |
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Post by julesd68 on Nov 28, 2020 20:18:08 GMT
Good points Clive, which I hadn't considered. The PecanPi Streamer Ultra looks like a reasonable option at $849 - I like the fact you get balanced / unbalanced outputs and a 5" screen. Purely in sonic terms, how does your PecanPi compare to your Chord / ATB combo? Have you tried it with a reclocker? I’ve not yet made the comparison directly with my Lindemann amp. I was using another (good) amp in the system which is RCA phono only....this amp whilst great for AV is not as good with music so I didn’t feel a comparison was worthwhile. The Lindemann amp is much better with music but it only has a balanced input so the Qutest won’t play with it. I need to ship everything into my main system for these comparisons. I have a first gen Uptone reclocker to use with the ATB. I may get to this tomorrow afternoon/evening. I think it would be an interesting comparison given the difference in price between the DAC in the Pecan and the Chord, but quite understand if you have something better to do Clive!  |
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Post by julesd68 on Nov 28, 2020 20:22:31 GMT
Looking at this V90 I see it dates from 2013 - this is nearly antique in terms of DACs and whilst I'm not doubting its quality, of course it suggests that little worthwhile progress has been made in DAC design in the meantime! That does hinge on the word "worthwhile", as I am sure you intended! A very subjective term in this instance. I tend to prefer the older DACs, finding them to sound more like real music in the context of my system. The undoubted fact that many more modern DACs are vastly more capable technically bothers me not at all! Others come to a different conclusions in their own systems. I'll certainly try a 'vintage' DAC sometime to see if I have the same success as you Jerry. |
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Post by Clive on Nov 28, 2020 20:27:34 GMT
I’ve not yet made the comparison directly with my Lindemann amp. I was using another (good) amp in the system which is RCA phono only....this amp whilst great for AV is not as good with music so I didn’t feel a comparison was worthwhile. The Lindemann amp is much better with music but it only has a balanced input so the Qutest won’t play with it. I need to ship everything into my main system for these comparisons. I have a first gen Uptone reclocker to use with the ATB. I may get to this tomorrow afternoon/evening. I think it would be an interesting comparison given the difference in price between the DAC in the Pecan and the Chord, but quite understand if you have something better to do Clive! I need to make the comparisons...also with my Lindemann Source. Tomorrow should be an opportunity to get it done. I may need to PM you as I ought to reserve public comment until the article is published. |
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Post by Chris on Dec 7, 2020 17:04:02 GMT
Price. Simple as that.
There’s just too much bollox about SQ and if I was starting again I’d simply go for good quality low priced s/h kit and settle for the compromise. No more chasing that “best sound “rainbow...
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Post by speedysteve on Dec 7, 2020 17:23:01 GMT
My priorities would be same basic format.
Focus on digital.
Use the money not spent on other sources to fund trying different drivers.
Problem is good compression drivers have become more and more expensive. The original classics like Vitavox S2's are becoming rarer 2nd hand / unobtainium. New ones at a price.
I probably got mine just in time.
The digital DSP crossover solution would have to be miniDSP I guess, or 2nd hand Najda.
I have a spare unit now, in case my Najda ever dies.
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