Use headphones so to know if the suspect transients are coming across the same before speakers enter the picture.
Yes it is a good suggestion, the bad thing is I can´t use headphones with my rig since I got no headphone amp. But I can use headphones with my computer, better than nothing but sound quality is not as good. Maybe sufficient to hear anyway, worth a try. I also should add that the speakers over all sound very good and it was easy to hear the good things the dac can do compared to my cd-player. But how much more is in it i wonder....
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So the listening is done, and the result was a surprise. I asked my friend to bring his XLR interconnects which are the same model as mine but I have RCA. So we compared the sound and I concentrated mostly on the transients, and it was clearly better with XLR out from the dac with his cables. Voices, instruments and so on in mid or high range sounded better and more distict especially start up of transients. The speakers easliy proved that XLR is the way to go with this dac (and probably most gear). Good news I think, but I have to get another XLR interconnect, I will talk to my dealer and see if I can change the RCA for XLR.
I am not sure what you mean Salas, I just have this info:
Music First Audio : : Classic Preamplifier : : Details and Specifications
Maybe you can explain "true symmetric"? Maybe I "should not" hear any difference......🙂.
Music First Audio : : Classic Preamplifier : : Details and Specifications
Maybe you can explain "true symmetric"? Maybe I "should not" hear any difference......🙂.
Looks like its not:
Does it convert balanced and unbalanced signals?
[SIZE=-1][/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]Yes, because our preamplifiers are transformer based they convert signals from unbalanced to balanced and visa versa. So, you can connect an unbalanced source and get a true transformer balanced signal from the XLR output of the preamplifier. Equally, any balanced sources connected to the preamplifier will be unbalanced at the RCA output. [/SIZE]
Yes I think so too, but I was not sure. But what does it mean in reality? I still hear an improvement nonetheless.
One more thing, the output level from "balanced" was much higher than RCA, I had to lover volume on my preamp quite a bit.
One more thing, the output level from "balanced" was much higher than RCA, I had to lover volume on my preamp quite a bit.
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It can be that your DAC is taking advantage of both it positive and negative output (balanced) and sounds better that way or you just hear differences between cable and cable. Should maybe be noticeable on any decent speaker tho
They employ center tapped TVCs in that passive pre most probably so a balanced connection favors common mode rejection across the transmission. Since there is a lot of unshielded non-twisted wiring in there, it should be a plus to use it with XLR.
Thanks Salas! Yes that could explain the improvement I hear, I have one balanced cable between preamp and power, maybe that part is not so sensible. I could move that cable to the dac and use the RCA between pre and power instead, I can always compare. I also finally updated the software in the dac so now it can play 24bit/192kHz DSD files via USB, I will listen to some of that tonight. First impression was that it is better than "Cd-quality" WAV files 🙂.
Had to return the dac, but it was surely a vg sounding dac to my ears. Very detalied and powerful with great dynamics and clarity.
Missed it quite much so I got another one to see if it is the dac for me.
Have to cut some costs but oh well, this is a big part of my life so might be the right step to take. Back later with a review if I keep it.
Have to cut some costs but oh well, this is a big part of my life so might be the right step to take. Back later with a review if I keep it.
So finally my cd-player was replaced with a ma-1 dac today 🙂. A big upgrade for me, I will give a short review of it when I am ready.
Thanks, it was the right choice I think. I need some adjusting to playing ripped cd and I have only tried a few free DSD music files. But both sounds very nice.
I will post some pictures tomorrow, now I say good night.
I will post some pictures tomorrow, now I say good night.
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starre,
congratulations, that dac was always in my radar 😀, but just out of my budget 🙁.
any plan to upgrade the speakers? 😀
cheers
henry
congratulations, that dac was always in my radar 😀, but just out of my budget 🙁.
any plan to upgrade the speakers? 😀
cheers
henry
Thanks, I bought a demo unit since yes it is expensive. No plans for new speakers for now. To begin with I am out of money after this dac purchase 🙂.
Dac in place.
A picture of the dac. What is different then? It sounds more complete from bottom to top, more details and live feeling. I get the feeling my amps and speakers are not showing all it can do, but it doesn´t matter since it is much better than with my old player 🙂.
A picture of the dac. What is different then? It sounds more complete from bottom to top, more details and live feeling. I get the feeling my amps and speakers are not showing all it can do, but it doesn´t matter since it is much better than with my old player 🙂.
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Happy with my dac, I have tried a few different USB cables. It is not hard to hear what different USB cables do so I have to find one that works best in my system. Speakers have no problem showing what happens when you change something. I had some unevenness in the mid range on piano that I will investigate, I need to adjust the positioning of speakers a little to get it more even. As it is now I have mostly cared for bass performance trying to compensate for the room, but some attention is needed for mid range perfection. And I should get some curtains in my room but I always push that in front of me since it is boring.
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