Audio Synthesis

[GaryG]

Gary,

I used the RCS into Tact S2150's so you could say I was using external DAC's.

If you look at the SMPS on the RCS it is both fairly crude and poorly isolated (the ERS mod was simple and well worth the effort). Having said that, the S2150 generates a hell of a lot of noise, and needed placement some distance from the RCS. I also used the RCS with a DCS Delius. Again mains treatments and general isolation brought improvements by reducing the "electronic" character I felt the RCS could introduce.

I ended up getting rid of the dCS as the S2150 actually bettered it in many respects. But again, much tweaking was needed to get rid of the digital signature IMO and in the end, the combo simply lacked the involvement of valves and the finest SS to my ears.

Thanks merlin, I have a bunch of other questions which I will probably save for a seperate thread.

Regards
Gary

 

[ANOpax]

Burn baby burn

Hi Gary

Thanks for the answers to my questions. From your previous post (#35), I assume the new discrete has arrived . Have the BGs burnt in yet or is it too early to post your first impressions?

reg

 

[GaryG]

Hi Reg

The Discrete has been on constant replay since last Friday, initial impressions are that it resolves more detail than the Decade with better timing. Strangely it hasn't exhibited the same character as the Decade during the Black Gate 'running in' period. The Decade was awful for the first week and didn't really start to sound good until after a couple of weeks. The Discrete sounded good out of the box but hasn't really changed much over the past week. At the moment it isn't quite as 'involving' as the Decade, it's more clinical in it's presentation. I'm trying to hold my nerve on this an keep telling myself that it will settle in as the Black Gates burn in, but it is difficult! Having said that I nearly sold my Meridian G98 several times in the first month, it sounded bloody awful out of the box and took a good three weeks of constant replay before it started to sound decent.

Regards
Gary

 

[GaryG]

Gary, on the Meridian issue, isn't it the case that the upsampling results in an MHR signal that uses proprierty coding and is incompatible with off board DACs?

That was certainly the case with the 568.2, the MHR needed to be switched to off when connecting to various DACs

I can confirm that the digital L/R output from the 568.2 works okay when set to upsampling. I spent some time yesterday comparing 44.1k with 88.2k from the 568.2 with the Discrete, if there is a difference I haven't spotted it yet, looks like there's no advantage in sending an 88.2k signal to the Discrete as it already does 16x oversampling.