Funny you should ask! I was just listening to this DAC with some good recordings. I was comparing the DAC to my NAD C541 CD player, and not to my other DAC with 4-way PCM-1704. I think that's a bit unfair 
Anyway, there is certainly a difference of character between the two sounds, although I have a hard time describing it without sounding like one of those lackwits from Stereophile magazine. On Rene Marie "Vertigo", track 4 "Don't Look at Me Like That", I prefer the sound of Marie's voice on this DAC over that of the CD player. This recording can be awefully harsh, but this DAC makes it sound very natural and listenable.
On Dire Straits "The Very Best of Dire Straits" (HDCD), track 1 "Sultans of Swing", there is a distinct difference in the character of the guitar sound. On my DAC, I would say the guitar sounds more like vibrating metal bits and magnets. I couldn't really say which sound is more "correct" though. The HDCD sort of throws a wrench into the commparison.
On Natalie Merchant "Tigerlily", track 5 "Carnaval", I couldn't describe a difference other than my DAC being "easier" to listen to, or perhaps less tiring.
On Natalie Merchant "Motherland" (HDCD), title track, I honestly can't tell a difference.
Same on Paul Simon "Graceland".
On Rachmaninov "Vespers" Melodiya Recods 1995, track 6 "Hail Mary", the NAD makes a hash out of the peak of the piece, at about 90 seconds through. I never could stand to listen to that passage on the NAD, because the upper voices just made this horrible interference pattern or some such at that time. My DAC doesn't have that problem.
The same thing goes for Carl Orff "Carmina Burana" 1968 Deutsche Grammophon, track 2 "Fortune plagno vulnera". There's simply less chaos in the louder passage.
Overall I'm pleased with the sound, especially for the money. It is a good project to jump into diigtal audio, sirface moutn construction, and a great way to get a balanced output at the head of your system.
The only thing I fret about is the output level is lower than every other source I have laying around. Can't do anything about that without adding a gain stage, which would ruin the character of the DAC I think. Also there is a turn-on and turn-off click.
Another problem is the CS8420 seems to hold the last sample if it loses lock on the input stream. This is pretty stupid.
Oh, and you guys would scream if you saw the way I hacked in the pulse transformer
Anyway, there is certainly a difference of character between the two sounds, although I have a hard time describing it without sounding like one of those lackwits from Stereophile magazine. On Rene Marie "Vertigo", track 4 "Don't Look at Me Like That", I prefer the sound of Marie's voice on this DAC over that of the CD player. This recording can be awefully harsh, but this DAC makes it sound very natural and listenable.
On Dire Straits "The Very Best of Dire Straits" (HDCD), track 1 "Sultans of Swing", there is a distinct difference in the character of the guitar sound. On my DAC, I would say the guitar sounds more like vibrating metal bits and magnets. I couldn't really say which sound is more "correct" though. The HDCD sort of throws a wrench into the commparison.
On Natalie Merchant "Tigerlily", track 5 "Carnaval", I couldn't describe a difference other than my DAC being "easier" to listen to, or perhaps less tiring.
On Natalie Merchant "Motherland" (HDCD), title track, I honestly can't tell a difference.
Same on Paul Simon "Graceland".
On Rachmaninov "Vespers" Melodiya Recods 1995, track 6 "Hail Mary", the NAD makes a hash out of the peak of the piece, at about 90 seconds through. I never could stand to listen to that passage on the NAD, because the upper voices just made this horrible interference pattern or some such at that time. My DAC doesn't have that problem.
The same thing goes for Carl Orff "Carmina Burana" 1968 Deutsche Grammophon, track 2 "Fortune plagno vulnera". There's simply less chaos in the louder passage.
Overall I'm pleased with the sound, especially for the money. It is a good project to jump into diigtal audio, sirface moutn construction, and a great way to get a balanced output at the head of your system.
The only thing I fret about is the output level is lower than every other source I have laying around. Can't do anything about that without adding a gain stage, which would ruin the character of the DAC I think. Also there is a turn-on and turn-off click.
Another problem is the CS8420 seems to hold the last sample if it loses lock on the input stream. This is pretty stupid.
Oh, and you guys would scream if you saw the way I hacked in the pulse transformer
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