Git!

Been chatting to a fellow forum member over the past couple of weeks about this and that, upgrades, what we've got, what we're thinking of doing etc, normal hi-fi chit-chat stuff and as usual he tells me I need to change my speakers blah blah blah, holding my system back blah blah blah and as usual I sit there thinking it's not me that needs to change my speakers mate... well you know what I mean.

Anyway, he tells me he's got some new speakers (maybe telepathy exists after all?), has done a few tweaks on his amps, has had a bit of a fettle with his CD player and la-di-da-di-da etc, 'why don't I come down for a listen'?

Well, the last time I paid him a vist his system sounded like a cat with somebody standing on it's tail! To be fair his CD player was bust and he was making do with a 'stand-in' CD player, his amps were new (those Bel Canto eVo 2 things), which weren't run-in, and he wasn't using his normal power cables, all-in-all he was a little embarrased as it was clearly the worst his system had ever sounded and he'd hoped that I'd bought my Wadia with me, no such luck.

So, yesterday, as I'd got some hours acrued at work I left early and paid this guy a visit. Knowing that he's a bit of dab hand with a soldering iron and doesn't charge the earth for his work, I took some of my amps down with me thinking that he could do a bit of his tweaking on them if he's not too busy.

Well, when I get down there I ring the door bell and... nothing. I stand there for what seems like a couple minutes thinking 'what do I do now, he's not in' when, to my relief, the door opens and... 'hi Gary, how ya doin' mate'. 'Hoorah', he's in!

We go inside and as I pass through his listening room to the Kitchen/Diner I notice his new speakers and think, 'not much different to the old ones, two bass driver's instead of one, big deal'. Once in the dining room I saw the reason why he didn't answer the door imediately, he'd got a Wadia CD player in pieces on his workbench and had just finished off working on the player. Knowing that I used to work in electronics he showed me what he'd been doing. I was gobsmacked, this bloke is off his rocker, there were custom components all over the place. Most of the standard surface mount stuff on the 4-layer circuit board had been replaced with fancy top-notch custom components, not a job for the feint-hearted! Even in my hey-day I wouldn't contemplate having a go at that sort of thing.

After a cup of coffee and 10 minute detailed tour of the tweaks we get down to business and he shows off his new speakers.

Well you know what it's like when you hear other people's systems, I smiled politely, nodded in the right places, listened intently while he explained how he'd got them and what he'd done to his amps and what he'd done to his CD player etc not really noticing the sound other than it was a bit clinical for my liking. However, as we were chatting I noticed my attention was wandering from what this guy was saying, he was playing the odd excerpt from this track and that track and I was becoming more and more aware that the music was DEMANDING my attention. After about half and hour, the amps had got into their stide and the speaker voice coils had warmed up and I was transfixed!

The dynamic range of this sytem was incredible, he played a track that had a drum intro which sounded like the drum kit was in the room, the slam and punch was unbelieveable. I actually commented that I thought it was too much! I was starting to feel physically ill from the shock waves. He then went on to play an orchestral piece which sounded fabulous, I'm not normally one for that type of music but this system showed that it wasn't just a 'one trick pony' and could handle any genre of music with aplomb. In fact, several hours of listening to every type of music you could think of left me astounded, this system was the finest music reproduction system I've ever heard, bearing in mind that my own Wadia 270/27ix Krell system isn't too shabby. My previous reference point of Midland Audio Exhchange's dCS stack (Verdi, Purcell, Elgar Plus), Krell 700cx and Martin Logan's had been blown out of the water.

Somewhat rather depressed it was time for me to go, I gingerly asked this bloke if there was anything he could do with my amps to which he replied, 'I can get them to about 90% percent of mine" yippee!!!!

I'll be back to visit Wadia-Miester next month to pick up my amps.

Regards
Gary

 

Been there, seen it, bought his old Evo and ditched my Naim kit....

Being fair, with some good recommendations from WM I've actually replaced all of my Naim electronics with something that sounds a good deal better, and only cost what I sold the Naim kit for.

 

Humm, Its got potential I think I'll say for the system.
Thanks for the comments Gary, though the day was more about server based music system and potential areas of development, we had some interesting results on the Day. twas a good exercise
Mr Sukebe, thanks for the kind words, glad your enjoying your new music making tools. Though this sound is way ahead of what you considered to be the best incarnation. Wm

 

now that's what I didn't want to read! Been demo'ing the powermaster, borrowed from Alanbeeb. makes a difference.

been wondering ...
what if, when I send the Dax Decade to David to have Balanced fitted, I also send the evo4 to Wm to have that 'fitted' ...

Hutter is good, its effect on the sound is not so obvously pronounced as the Mana, but allows a more engaging/seductive effect to come through from the Ncode/Decade/evo4.

 

Ditton

Tony's had an input into my system for a couple of years now, we had a queer steer with an eVo 4 a while back which didn't quite cut the mustard in comparison with my Krells, but his modified eVo 2's used as monoblocs have now done the trick and have finally surpassed the Krells. Hopefully with this next round of modifications I can cross amps off my list of upgrades for the the foreseable future.

If you decide to go for a PowerMaster 2 you want the one with a pair of 'red' sockets for the Bel Canto, it's an extra cost option over the standard PowerMaster 2 but well worth the upgrade.

In your situation I would give some serious consideration to selling your current transport and DAC and replacing it with a Wadia 850/860/861 in preference to having the DAC modified for balanced operation. I've spent a considerable amount of time A/B testing the BG DAX Decade against the Wadia DAC, the Wadia has a very similar sound but is just better, and, a conbined transport and DAC in a single player will save you the cost of the extra power cable needed when using two seperate boxes.


Picking up on Tony's comment, I took an Empirical Audio USB Offramp Turbo USB/SPDIF convertor (http://www.empiricalaudio.com/frComputer_Audio.html) with me to try in Tony's system along with an Apogee Big Ben. I was keen to have Tony do some work on it with the intention of using it as a replacement for my 270 transport. In my system it's very difficult to tell the difference between the convertor and the transport but the difference in Tony's higher resolution system easiliy showed up that computer based audio still has some way to go to match a dedicated transport.

Regards
Gary

 

wasn't looking to move from the Dax Decade for a while. btw, have you heard the Ncode feed into the Dax Decade?

And did you ever get back to the Decade after your experience with the Discrete? I think that's when you went Wadia.

As ever, your comments merit re-reading a few times. You will recall that I've bought s/h at bargain prices, and so some of your recommendations take me into a new territory spending-wise.

 

that URL on computer audio is interesting, as is your observation about the A/B in Tony;s system with transport-based feed. As remarked elsewhere, I wonder whether the computer audio will excel when the storage/delivery is non-mechanical.

 

I know you like the Transcend ASL/N-Code link, I haven't heard it but the dealer that demo'd the Discrete against my BG Decade had the option of using the Transcend as the source for the demo. His choice was a Chord Blu which he considered to be a significant step up from the Transcend with ASL. At the time I specifically asked the dealer about the differences between the Transcend with ASL against other transports using standard AES and S/PDIF, he said it was good at it's price point but was beaten by the more upmarket brands such as the Chord Blu. I was very impressed with the Blu in the demo, but I'm even more impressed with the Wadia.

As the Black Gate Decade was such a terrific DAC I did get another after selling the Discrete. In the back of my mind there was a doubt that the Wadia was better than the Decade and I needed to compare the two to be sure. They both have a very similar sound, taken in isolation they are both very good but the Wadia is the better of the two.

With regard to computer audio, I think it's just a question of cost, if you spend enough money on shielding, quality components, power supplies and cabling I see no reason why it can't match a top quality transport. I'm still reflecting on my conversation with Tony on this subject, in effect, an R&D project to build a PC based music delivery system that can match or outperform the best transports. The costs are likely to be high, well beyond my budget, maybe if there is enough interest in the Hi-Fi community it's something that we could undertake.

Regards
Gary

 

If enough of you guys are interested in doing this, I'm happy to run with it.

 

a few other comments about my own set-up, on what might otherwise prove an interesting thread. I'm trying to keep to 'the plan' but do appreciate the call to Wadia. I should try to arrange a demo.

First, as we all know, its all about synergy, what we 'like' and ultimately SQ/£: and I'm into tweaking about a set-up that does make me happy - tho I confess I've been happy before and still happier post-upgrade.

upgrading on the source side is not in that plan, except to take full nominal advantage of the upgrade to the amp (bc evo4), with the BG balance (low £'00s). sorting out mains has prospect of general improvement, but especially with the evo4. I do think that the Mana/Hutter switch has helped the soundstage as well as the 'organic' feel - which is exactly the 'effect' of toggling between the standard and Ncode signal from the Transcend to the Decade. That is easily demonstrated to (attested by) visitors. But I guess there is always more to be had.

Second, tho I'm a digital kind of guy, I've some analogue sources and am pleased with the net effect of the ADX add-on to the Decade. So I would be looking to have equivalent functionality - analogue input (hopefully direct) into CDT/dac/digitalPre.

The leap in functionality I seek is delivery from computer-based storage (easily fed with extra food from Internet/Broadband/Satellite, as well as ripped CDs) - that could feed into CDT/dac/digitalPre. So back to the twist this thread is taking ...

 

reality-check: the transport I use is a Sony *711* CDP that was modded by AudioSynthesis to be a Transcend, and then upgraded to Ncode. The casing is not substantial. Any A/B on the Ncode toggle has to be judged within that context. So, I'm putting my hand up to say that although I bought a real bargain (£240 inclusive of upgrade), if build is significant, then there is scope for improvement. Still sounds good though on the isolation cones - having previous sat on part-inflated 10" inner tube!