How nice? I know a guy that makes very good ones, but cost is more than for a D90. Better dac than a D90 too, at least I think so.
It is going to be about 6 months or so before I get a new DAC but if you have some info, I would be interested in seeing it. Thanks!
Speaking for myself, I confine myself to analogue circuits because digital hardware + software has always seemed a bridge too far.
While this may be a misconception, once you've made the investment in a commercial set-up and are happy with it, there's little incentive to embark on a potentially very frustrating excercise. (I came across a large, 95% completed radio-related pcb the other day and couldn't even remember what it was going to be......so senility may also be a factor.
While this may be a misconception, once you've made the investment in a commercial set-up and are happy with it, there's little incentive to embark on a potentially very frustrating excercise. (I came across a large, 95% completed radio-related pcb the other day and couldn't even remember what it was going to be......so senility may also be a factor.
Well, there are a lot of people in this forum buying stacks of boards and accessories for RPi based digital audio. I don't understand it. Some of them end up spending a lot of money in the end and don't have great sound to show for it. OTOH, a few well chosen but not cheap boards can, IMHO and IME, can lead to a result that I believe can compete with some of the best dacs in the world, those up in the $10k and up price class (such as Bruno Putzeys' Mola dacs). Of course, you have to put the boards and power supplies, etc., together properly. But help and advice is available for people who want it. Anyway, that path makes a lot more sense to me than the RPi path. My two cents. YMMV.
Well, I know at least one person who asked about the dacs and who has been to my house a couple of times to listen, @ra7
He knows what the system sounds like including the dac at time time he visited and the optical vinyl. The dac has since been improved, but it wasn't bad then.
Maybe he could tell you something about the sound.
So could other people if they wanted to come visit. However nobody really cares, at least that's been my experience.
Regarding measurements, they say very little to nothing about how a dac sounds. They are generally poor at predicting SQ. So that's useless too.
He knows what the system sounds like including the dac at time time he visited and the optical vinyl. The dac has since been improved, but it wasn't bad then.
Maybe he could tell you something about the sound.
So could other people if they wanted to come visit. However nobody really cares, at least that's been my experience.
Regarding measurements, they say very little to nothing about how a dac sounds. They are generally poor at predicting SQ. So that's useless too.
Not exactly true especially regarding RTZ dacs as with those good noise measurements are an indication that clock jitter is low. According to you low clock jitter has some influence on sound.
Yes, I have been to Mark’s place. I can try to describe the sound.
Please note that these are subjective impressions. I am very much a believer in science-based research and good engineering. I would want to know which objective measurements can quantify what I'm hearing. That would be very powerful.
When I was there, Mark's speakers were one of the Soundlab behemoths, probably the Majestic series, which is a large electrostat. There were subs for the very bottom end. This was powered by high power amps. Front end was one of the DACs Mark was probably experimenting with. Vinyl was the new SP-10 Mk3 with a laser cartridge (?) plus a custom preamp for the cartridge. My speakers are a two-way, 15 inch pro woofer plus large horn mated to a compression driver.
The first thing I noticed was that the electrostats could play loud with little to no distortion. Much more so than my horn speakers, which can go plenty loud. I had heard electrostats before and was always disappointed that I couldn't turn it up without hitting the limit. On these, the limit is high enough that you can enjoy realistic sound levels and stunningly low distortion.
This low distortion from the speakers resulted in a lot of transparency and ability to hear down into the preceding components. And it is those components whose sound we are interested in. What I heard was an extremely natural, live-sounding tempo. This was a revelation to me. Even on music I am very familiar with, the tempo was much slower and much more natural. It was unbelievable really. On one piece of music, I had to check with Mark that he was playing the exact same recording I had heard so many times. The difference was that stark. You would want your system to have this ability to get the tempo (or flow, or beat, or whatever you want to call it) exactly right.
And of course all the other stuff, such as natural timbres and textures of instruments and voices was there. But the tempo was the standout thing for me. We listened to the vinyl too and of course that sounded very good, probably goes without saying.
I am not really qualified to talk about the construction of DACs; all of you have much more experience in that regard. But visiting Mark and hearing his system was eye-opening for me. Since then, I have worked on my DACs and two most important changes that have resulted in sound being closer to natural have been:
1. using Lyuben's JLSounds card, and
2. switching to HQPlayer from JRiver.
The JLSounds card does reclocking and it has made a huge difference to tempo and overall enjoyment. My DAC before that was an RME ADI-2 Pro, which has fantastic specs, but sorry to say sounds awful in comparison. Regarding the JRiver to HQPlayer switch, I have no idea why that should make a difference (not doing oversampling) but it does.
Please note that these are subjective impressions. I am very much a believer in science-based research and good engineering. I would want to know which objective measurements can quantify what I'm hearing. That would be very powerful.
When I was there, Mark's speakers were one of the Soundlab behemoths, probably the Majestic series, which is a large electrostat. There were subs for the very bottom end. This was powered by high power amps. Front end was one of the DACs Mark was probably experimenting with. Vinyl was the new SP-10 Mk3 with a laser cartridge (?) plus a custom preamp for the cartridge. My speakers are a two-way, 15 inch pro woofer plus large horn mated to a compression driver.
The first thing I noticed was that the electrostats could play loud with little to no distortion. Much more so than my horn speakers, which can go plenty loud. I had heard electrostats before and was always disappointed that I couldn't turn it up without hitting the limit. On these, the limit is high enough that you can enjoy realistic sound levels and stunningly low distortion.
This low distortion from the speakers resulted in a lot of transparency and ability to hear down into the preceding components. And it is those components whose sound we are interested in. What I heard was an extremely natural, live-sounding tempo. This was a revelation to me. Even on music I am very familiar with, the tempo was much slower and much more natural. It was unbelievable really. On one piece of music, I had to check with Mark that he was playing the exact same recording I had heard so many times. The difference was that stark. You would want your system to have this ability to get the tempo (or flow, or beat, or whatever you want to call it) exactly right.
And of course all the other stuff, such as natural timbres and textures of instruments and voices was there. But the tempo was the standout thing for me. We listened to the vinyl too and of course that sounded very good, probably goes without saying.
I am not really qualified to talk about the construction of DACs; all of you have much more experience in that regard. But visiting Mark and hearing his system was eye-opening for me. Since then, I have worked on my DACs and two most important changes that have resulted in sound being closer to natural have been:
1. using Lyuben's JLSounds card, and
2. switching to HQPlayer from JRiver.
The JLSounds card does reclocking and it has made a huge difference to tempo and overall enjoyment. My DAC before that was an RME ADI-2 Pro, which has fantastic specs, but sorry to say sounds awful in comparison. Regarding the JRiver to HQPlayer switch, I have no idea why that should make a difference (not doing oversampling) but it does.
I looked briefly but haven't had a lot of time to comb through the site very much. I will send you a PM.
It sounds ludicrous, doesn’t it? But that is what I heard. It was the famous 1812 recording with Telarc. Capriccio Italien. Like I said, I had to stop and ask if it is the exact same recording (and verify it myself) because the tempo was so much slower. I thought it was a different recording with a different conductor. It sounded more live and natural and the thrust of music was easier to follow. Another way to say it would be that I had much more time to process what was happening and enjoy it. The timing felt natural and more at ease.
Currently using Miro TDA1541. While the DAC itself is better sounding, the timing aspect was vastly improved with the JLSounds card.
Currently using Miro TDA1541. While the DAC itself is better sounding, the timing aspect was vastly improved with the JLSounds card.
I does not sound ludicrous but long- and medium-term aural memory is unreliable so any comparison to what you had heard at home is vague at best. Proper comparison should rely exclusively on short-term memory and near-instantaneous switching.
While I have no hands-on experience with RME I have couple of well-regarded TDA1541 dacs so I can understand why you prefer your TDA1541 dac over RME. But OTOH there are plenty of RME users that would say the opposite.
This is rather misleading. I take it the reference here is to 'echoic memory' which is known to have short-term duration, typically 3-4 seconds. Echoic memory is physically located in the primary auditory cortex.
This too is misleading. @ra7 wouldn't have been comparing using his echoic memory, its far too short-term for that. Rather he'd be using another part of his brain, likely secondary or tertiary auditory cortex. See the sections on 'Melody' and 'Rhythm' in Wikipedia's article here.