anybody own one ? I'm looking for a quality stop-gap DAC until my player is repaired.
In its current condition anything is better than my current CDP you've now tried more than DAC's than most,is the Altmann not on your list
Get one of these, honestly its good. Easy enough to sell on too I should think (if you don't keep it). http://www.richersounds.com/showproduct.php?cda=showproduct&pid=CAMB-540C-V2-BLK On the other hand doesn't the Altmann come with a free chopping board?
trouble is Simon,all stand alone DAC's I've used bar one have in the past to a greater or lesser degree leave me fatigued worst offender being the Benchmark DAC1 for instance the only two I could live wth thus far are the AA & Perpetual Tech P3A with full house Modwright mods,and I can not find either 2nd hand at the moment
Then get a record player Seriously though how long do you have to survive before your usual player is returned? Can't you scrape buy with any old DAC for a few weeks?
well I've been using the DEQ as an emergency solution,I know you rate the DEQ Simon,but I just find it too fatiguing {maybe I like a particular type of distorsion } added too that my main amps are single ended as for how long before I get it back .........who knows
The top end on the stock version is a bit hashy / grainy. If it were perfect I wouldn't bother to modify it hehe I'm surprised the AA and PT DACs are the only ones you have not found fatiguing though, since I didn't think the AA was all that different sounding, just a little warm.
cannot remember now Did I bring up all three when I came up too you ? I seem to remember you wasn't keen on the AA at the time
You bought the TacT and the Audio Aero. The AA sounded truely pants to start with but after leaving it on for an hour we tried again and it was perfectly fine. To me it sounded warmer and softer in balance than the TacT, no doubt because of the valves. I would be happy to listen to either of them, though preffered the TacT with my AML1. Reading the spec now, the AA definitely has high distortion. 0.2% - my speakers are as low as that!
[QUOTEReading the spec now, the AA definitely has high distortion. 0.2% - my speakers are as low as that![/QUOTE] Interesting Simon, how would you interpret the stats on the Modwrighted P3a ?
Looking at the measurements Stereophile took, its superb. Distortion is almost a factor of 10 lower than the AA. Also of note is the very low noise floor (at least with the PSU add-on thing). By all accounts it is state of the art. This was the non-modded version, but the mods only change components for other brands with slight different specs, its nothing major. I have a hunch that very low noise floor, especially in the top end, is a large part of what makes it sound non-fatiguing to you. This is one of the reasons I think my mods to the Behringer improve matters, since being a completely passive output stage there is no way PSU noise can leak in. Perhaps a bit of added 2nd harmonic distortion makes it even smoother in the case of the AA.
do you know anybody with a Benchmark DAC1 ? if so try and borrow/hear it,for me it just sounds contrived,edgy,clinical in the extreme,everything I am NOT looking for. do you have a demo version of your souped up DEQ ?
