DAC Recommendation?

certainly the most difficult step before owning the altmann is to overcome the prejudice. a very few that heard it remained untouched.

anyway there are ways to integrate a battery into a living room. it can be housed in a simple wooden box with a lid, along with a charger.

it also doesn't have to be a car battery. good hands can make a PSU that consists of 2 SLA batteries with an automatic charger that always feeds an empty one. all housed in a shoebox size case. the sound is just marginally less impressive.

i have 3 cats who are probably a bit more difficult to handle than kids and i still haven't fried them yet.:MILD:

 

I'm not 'prejudiced' against the Altmann I don't think, but I'd still rather not have a car battery in my living room! It's not just the potential risk to small hands, it would be difficult to place it where it would be needed. Still, if my first DAC trial doesn't satisfy me then I might take another look.

Anyway it looks as though there's a NOS DAC purchase in the pipeline so all is well for now.

P.S. We also have three cats as well as the kids, and IME cats are far less likely to piss around with your hifi than kids! Mind you there are the rabbits as well, they occasionally wander in if the back door is open, one of those little buggers once bit right through my digibox to amp interconnect .

 

you could always use a battery bag.... i use one in my car, not only helps protect the battery from extreme temperature changes, but it covers the thing totally and would stop prying hands.

Looks better too.

 

I've said it before, but a good regulated PSU will give lower noise than a battery. How much current does it draw?

 

hi,
I have the Lavry,with good satisfaction... good as a preamp too. Detailed, but still "human" sound . When I go to audition speakers, I take it with me, so that I listen to my known sound. And it does get very good reception from the others, who get to hear it.

 

Yeah, heard a lot of good things about the Lavry.
What's the average price of it ?

My own experience : a Derek Shek d1 : did not add or retrieve anything, but was pleasant to hear. I would say to consider it as a good dac : good 2D and 3D image, but bass were a little bit short. Highs were great but heard higher with A2C Hermes dac. All in all : pleasant, little bit warm, never aggressive.

An EAD dsp7000 gives bigger imaging, bigger bandwidth but is not as easy
Cayin da2 with Mullard ECC88 : very great timbers, great imaging, short in the bass and highs, but smooth and warm : to consider.

For my part, I'm searching for the "holographic" side : would like to try Chord, Audiomat, Audionote.

Between, I will perhaps offer me a Full Nelson MSB Link dac III, just to try and share the experience.

Greetings,

 

Some months ago, some people in this forum found out for themselves and at various bake-ins, that a well modded M-Audio SuperDAC 24/96 is as good as some DACs costing £1000 in the hi-fi market.

As a product aimed at the Pro Audio market, performance was very good to start off with. Plus it is good value as it does not carry a hyped up 'hi-fi' price tag.

 

FWIW it has to be extremely modded - a friend uses a stock one and it's crap, he was shocked to hear my altmann in his system.

 

I have done many shootouts with the Lavry DA10 vs the Benchmark DAC1 and have allways preffered the sound of the DA10. The differences between the two are fairly subtle however the DA10 has a fuller sound and almost makes the DAC1 sound thin.

If one is looking for the best converter on the market however it could only be the Lavry Gold DA924, nothing ive heard comes even remotely close to it. Also it doesn't matter what transport you use with the Gold DA because it automatically removes any jitter from the signal that feeds the converter. I recently did a shootout with a 'top of range' DCS cd player and the difference was night and day!

:guiness:

 

Apparently this comment is not based on any personal experience of modding SuperDAC 24/96.

SuperDAC 24/96 is fundamentally a good design and that is why it attracted a following. Replacing the wallwart with 4W+ PSU is the first requirment. Easy and simple thing to do but brings about a noticeable improvement in performance.

Link to the user group (220 happy users) with mineful of useful info is given below.

 

"Two top DA converters in the $1000 range fight it out".

Lavry DA10 and Benchmark DAC1 compared at
http://www.studioreviews.com/dac1-da10.htm

 

It does have to be modded and is very jitter sensitive. In standard form I didn't think it had anything over my PDS 505 in my set up at the time. That said,,, I'll be selling it soon so I really should be pointing out what a 'high - end' bargain it really is and how everyone should have one,

 

My vote for an inexpensive DAC would be the Oritek Zhaolu 2.5. For $450US its all it should be. It comes with a wall wart which isn't bad. However if your handy a 100W outboard power supply will transform this little sucker to a Giant killer.
Most of the inexpensive DACs are limited in one way or another IMO. The Oritek just sounds a step above the competition [ DACs under $1000US].
As you all know by now there is no best DAC. There is a synergy issue with each and every kit the DAC is tried. The transport, digital cable, ICs and last but not least the character of your kit. It all must meld together to form the whole. IMO ther eis no best of anything overall.
Sometimes in our passion to achieve the ultimate sound we need to close the book so to say on something. For me it was when I purchased a Lector CDP 7. No digital cable, no fancy powercord, no extra isolation supports. Just music. The nervosa you know.
I have been through the chase from inexpensive to ultra expensive and have found that the most important criteria to be the SYNERGY with my kit.

rollo

 

Quad did it few years back; and most AV amps have them too. So although not a new develpment, increasing number of stereo amps have DACs built into them?

Does anyone have any experience of these amps?

 

I reached the opposite choice though concur with the 'fuller'-or 'warmer' observation of sound of the da10.
With smaller speakers maybe I'd 've chosen the Lavry but prefered the leaner presentation of the DAC1 in my own system.
On the subject of best converter it has to be the Prismsound DA2 but as it costs more than my entire system I'll pass.
Incidentally I've just installed an Tannoy TX2/XTA 226 system controller/xover and the sound of its converters is a revelation to these ears anyway-sweet top, detailed, stereo to die for and only cost me 15% of it's full £1750 purchase price.

 

I am yet to hear the Lavry Gold DA924 up against the Prism DA2.

I have heard the DA2 up against the Lavry Blue DA824, in a mastering studio, and the sonic difference was a lot less than what the price difference would suggest.

The DA924 however sounds surprisingly better than both the LavryBlue or the DA10, which leads me to believe that it will quite easily outperform the DA2.

The only other unit that would be a condender for the best DA converter tag would be the Pacific Microsonics DA. The trouble is that they are very hard to find as nobody wants to part with them.

:MILD:

 

I think, based on experience the Pacific micro ,Prismsound and Lavry924 are all operating at levels of performance where 'easily outperform' just isn't a viable observation. Each in their own way reaching the pinacle of DA conversion-the rest is down to choice IMHO-I've found the Prism' to be totally neutral and transparrent lacking any character of its own-not perhaps whats required for hifi

 

howand where do you get a better power supply to the beresford
dac?