On GaryG's recommendation, I sent my Dax Decade away to AS to have Black Gates fitted - his view, confirmed by David Heaton (of AS), was that this moves further from digital to 'organic' (a word neither of them used). I had heard a bit of that when I had earlier tried the vdh Second, so I knew something of the potential improvement. The Dax arrives back on Tuesday, so after some burning in, I look forward to tasting the difference. I also sent in the (AS) modded Sony 711 transport, that I bought s/h for a song, for David to check over - not that I thought I was having problems, although I could hear that something was loose. Pleased to say he has given it clean bill of health and done a little tweaking. He has also fitted the Ccode and Ncode options, for not a lot of dosh. The Ccode will apparently reduce jitter, and the Ncode, which I naively had thought was in this bargain purchase, is an encoding that supposedly elimates jitter. So some more experimenting ahead. I'll see what I can do to write a review of the experience in a few weeks time. Meanwhile, as something for the weekend, I have rescued the 1994 Yamaha CD670 from the 2nd system in the dining room, and its doing OK although also telling me how far I have travelled since I started on the upgrade path three/four years ago. I'm playing a set of CDs that Alanbeeb loaned me as part of my further education of classical music - several revelations, surprises included Four Last Songs by RStrauss sung by Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Bach's St Matthew Passion and Mahler/Rattle and .... I'm wondering whether I'll still be hankering after a clean poweramp to fit between Dax Decade and JM Lab Electra 905s. The AudioLab 8000S is doing OK but I'm sure that others may have some suggestions. Should I keep it pur and simple and seek out an older Class A? btw, AS have some Dax2 and Dax Decade stock that has come their way due to sales of their Dax Discrete. Anyone interested could check out their website ([URL]http://www.audiosynthesis.co.uk[/URL]) or give David a ring direct (0115 922 4138)
