They use ESS in Bluetooth devices now and I'd rather go back to the last century than listen to one. I do like those portable Bt speakers though -perversely 🙂
Ok , I read a few more pages and my conclusion is as follow. When I was young and had no money whatsoever I got a cheapest random system which I could cobble together and I was happy as a clam. For real and for a few years. These were my only happy days as a music listener. Unfortunately one cursed day I spotted an Audio Mag on the press stand and forty years later "i still haven't found what I'm looking for" 🙂 `A pity
Good Enough can be surprisingly inexpensive these days. It's difficult to transplant the experience of listening to $100k system to recommend something to be used in $1k system.
Based on the the forum hopla I bought Audiosector clone of 47 labs TDA1543 dac with all the red BG caps. It was the most boring and lifeless device I had at home . I tried to like those cheap TDA1541 Cd players everybody was raving about and convince myself they are GIANT killers -nope , no cigar until I got ancient NAIM CD2 last year for meaty amount of $70 and actually there is something pleasing about the device. ( and I did have TOTL Philips LHH1000 combo too) I avoided like a plague Delta Sigma based players -cuz they kill the music and everybody knows it. Well maybe most does but equally ancient Meridian 508/24 is supremely elegant sounding artefact.
On vinyl I spent more than $10k and its a disappointment of my life. One should spend either less than $1k in total and be perfectly happy or over $50k and be a little happier. The amount of badly recorded LP's is equal percentage wise (or more) than badly recorded CD's and one likes it for what it is and not for what is not. And it's the same with CD 's , cassette and R2R decks. I don't get the format wars. Typical male attitude is more machines the better, well unless you're one of those MODERN people 🙂
Good Enough can be surprisingly inexpensive these days. It's difficult to transplant the experience of listening to $100k system to recommend something to be used in $1k system.
Based on the the forum hopla I bought Audiosector clone of 47 labs TDA1543 dac with all the red BG caps. It was the most boring and lifeless device I had at home . I tried to like those cheap TDA1541 Cd players everybody was raving about and convince myself they are GIANT killers -nope , no cigar until I got ancient NAIM CD2 last year for meaty amount of $70 and actually there is something pleasing about the device. ( and I did have TOTL Philips LHH1000 combo too) I avoided like a plague Delta Sigma based players -cuz they kill the music and everybody knows it. Well maybe most does but equally ancient Meridian 508/24 is supremely elegant sounding artefact.
On vinyl I spent more than $10k and its a disappointment of my life. One should spend either less than $1k in total and be perfectly happy or over $50k and be a little happier. The amount of badly recorded LP's is equal percentage wise (or more) than badly recorded CD's and one likes it for what it is and not for what is not. And it's the same with CD 's , cassette and R2R decks. I don't get the format wars. Typical male attitude is more machines the better, well unless you're one of those MODERN people 🙂
More (preferably nicely crafted and well recorded) music is what I prefer today instead of more machines. The less machines the better really.
How is your nicely engineered bread tasting these days ? Do you still remember your Grandma's beaked bread? I do. Fortunately most people don't and they never will
If we could rent hifi devices like cars...
10 K usd of vynil system ! Easy to sold it twice to a young hypster saying it is the Grail ! 🙂
I still have a Rega planar 3 whith cheap Rega cell and I prefer my TDA1541A DAC.
There was a terrible equation for me : the more I am invoved in Hifi and devices the less I listen to music !
I was said the Naim and Linn old dac sounded good whatever the tech inside (Cyrus chip?), but have no idea, the enginneers changed, etc. Layouts were clean with Naim ! Old Monarchy audio PCM DAC were not bad iirc...
Yup there are bargain with second hands if you like to mod.
10 K usd of vynil system ! Easy to sold it twice to a young hypster saying it is the Grail ! 🙂
I still have a Rega planar 3 whith cheap Rega cell and I prefer my TDA1541A DAC.
There was a terrible equation for me : the more I am invoved in Hifi and devices the less I listen to music !
I was said the Naim and Linn old dac sounded good whatever the tech inside (Cyrus chip?), but have no idea, the enginneers changed, etc. Layouts were clean with Naim ! Old Monarchy audio PCM DAC were not bad iirc...
Yup there are bargain with second hands if you like to mod.
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diyiggi:”There was a terrible equation for me : the more I am invoved in Hifi and devices the less I listen to music”.
Exactly. One tends to be busy pursuing eh yeah what exactly!?
Anyway the thread is about new affordable Chinese DACs and not old stuff.
Exactly. One tends to be busy pursuing eh yeah what exactly!?
Anyway the thread is about new affordable Chinese DACs and not old stuff.
Planar 3 is as far as one should go in Rega's lineup .
If you have TDA1541Dac in a league of $2K ABBAS dac mystical contraption with radiation of old parts glued to semiconductors penetrating the circuits then it may be so but then why would you listen to old LP record on your DAC 🙂
Don't dismiss anything you have no experience with of the batt.
If you have TDA1541Dac in a league of $2K ABBAS dac mystical contraption with radiation of old parts glued to semiconductors penetrating the circuits then it may be so but then why would you listen to old LP record on your DAC 🙂
Don't dismiss anything you have no experience with of the batt.
Chinese affordable Dacs are ALL GOOD. Not joking . If they were bad they would disappear from the market. Instead they sell ton of them to people who like them enough and there is bazilion people who do. The only way to tell if your are the one is to try it. Most of us are pretty alike.
Yet they are fairly far from authentic, highly credible sound reproduction (despite great SINAD numbers). About the same type of thing for most overall reproduction systems. Its just that there is almost nothing better than that most people will get a chance hear. That's simply because better sounding dacs (and systems) are not nearly as cost effective as the average consumer grade stuff.
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For my expectation it is still poor at less than 1000/2000 ! I should not have ASR eyes to judge DACS ?!
But question remains, there still should have some good enough or cheap enough to mod when possible (smd reflow)...
But question remains, there still should have some good enough or cheap enough to mod when possible (smd reflow)...
Some people replace the SMPS for their Chord dacs with Linear PS. They also may add USB isolators.
And yet nobody has been able to prove in controlled listening tests that they are any farther from authentic, highly credible sound reproduction than so called "better sounding dacs".
I use the akliam pd6 with ess9039q2m with my streamer PC playing dsd and up to 384khz PCM.Connected with balanced cable to purifi 1et400a amp and dynaudio speakers. For me best sounding setup until yet. I had( for 40years)a lot of dac’s before. This one has a deep, wide, detailed, dry sound just what Iike. No special power supply, just from usb c of my minisforum N100. On my headphone AKG 7XX the sound is overwhelming. Best spend 100euro.
And it matters what kind of system you sit on when you try a Chi-DAC... most probable you have tuned the rest of your system due to what your last DAC sounded like so that anything else will sound crap. This means potentially that your DAC actually sounds odd and not the new one 😉
Basic logic. It's a compensation game... ya' all....
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Basic logic. It's a compensation game... ya' all....
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Dynaudio fans just like real reproduction. Like the purifi and hypex fans( gain on a wire). With passive volume and source control the sources makes the difference. My modified thorens td160 recordplayer with hybrid preamp plays for me perfect. As my shanling cd-t100e cd player. And now the akliam pd6 as DAC for my media PC.
TNT, my last DAC was a DIY dual BB PCM1794 witch I had for 10years competing with TDA1541, TDA1384, PCM1797, CS4398, AD1862, ESS 9038q2m and DIY R2R.
I also have Cosmos E1DA 9039 DAC same sound as Akliam PD6 but better distorsion specs. This one I use for measurements as tonegenerator.
TNT, my last DAC was a DIY dual BB PCM1794 witch I had for 10years competing with TDA1541, TDA1384, PCM1797, CS4398, AD1862, ESS 9038q2m and DIY R2R.
I also have Cosmos E1DA 9039 DAC same sound as Akliam PD6 but better distorsion specs. This one I use for measurements as tonegenerator.
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