Less is more?

If you're interested then you won't miss out as the guy more or less always has one on eBay. As soon as one auction ends he puts up another one.

Michael.

 

And he keeps bumping up the price each time??

Best to let this one run to its end and just wait for the next one to keep perceived demand levels low.

(So says the current highest bidder )

 

I believe Alan beeb is selling his, its a MKII and Black, maybe give him a pm

 

I'd rather be selling the Electrocompaniet ECD-1 and keep the DAC64.... The DAC64 is still the best CD replay I have ever heard!

Where people get the idea its bright or fatiguing I don't know. Probably from reading other opinions rather than listening themselves.

 

Alan, I'd agree it's not bright in the traditional sense. We recently did a comparison between the Dac 64, the AS Decade, and an Apogee Mini dac. What was surprising was just how much HF information was lacking with the Chord. But it did manage that analogue trick of making sounds appear to jump out of the speakers.

 

WM,

I agree 200% with your comments hence the reason I am bemused by Michael's new found criticisms of the DAC64 but I am tempted to say "we told you so ages ago". Btw, Michael, in all seriousness, it would be interesting to know how that NOS DAC compares to the 47 Labs Shigaraki DAC on which your DAC is based, bearing in mind that your DAC also costs a fraction of the Shigaraki's price.


Enjoy the music,

Lawrie.

 

There's another guy in Taiwan who seems to sell a similar product but he seems to vary the packaging each time.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI...4605389&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW#ebayphotohosting

 

Or in fact owing one (dac 64) Alan and realising that once the wow factor is over, its nothing special at all, but then I respect that it all depends on what each person considers his/her reference and judges accordingly

 

Just had look, whoooooooo, whats that nasty e-frame tranny doing inside the thing that ought to sound interesting

 

Also seems to be using Russian paper in oil caps, popular in valve diy circles i think. I tried them once and thought they gave a rather wooly sound

 

Has anyone tried out the Ack Dack? Seems to be the same kind of circuit but with the advantage of being battery powered.

I did consider one but you only get 7 hours listening at a time which seems to be somewhat limiting

Link here

 

Looks like the current auction for the NOS DAC has got a lot more expensive. Seen that PBirkett's been in there with a couple of bids . Previous auctions of the DAC (including the one where I won) have rarely had more than 1 bid on them.

WM and Lawrie, you can say "I told you so" all you like but, other than the NOS DAC I now have (and maybe variants on that theme), I'd still have the DAC64 over any other digital source.

Michael.

 

Yeah, I have bidded on it, but the price has gone over my budget now unfortunately....

 

I read Thorsten Loesch rating the Ack dac very highly not so long ago.

It has opamp I/V, which in my v.limited isn't anything of an advantage over passive resistor I/V. I fiddled about with battery power a bit too, that can have really positive effects, even though batteries are apparently noisier than AC mains!

I think the dac that Scott Nixon sells may be an exact clone of the 47 Labs circuit (don't know about parts). http://scott-nixon.com/dac.htm

Not seen any balanced input versions of this dac. Apparently, the reciever can take 0.5V single ended, but up to +10V/-10V balanced, meaning loads less jitter. Two opamps to boosts the signal have been suggested to acieve this from a single ended source.

Sounds interesting, but not heard anything more about it.

 

Hm.

I personally find myself disagreeing very much with some of Thorstens reviews, and although professionally written, I dont rate them any more or any less than the opinions of any other reviewer.

I'd love to hear this DAC if I ever get the chance.. dont fancy bringing it north of london do you Mike?

The real tests will be against a DAC like Ian's 47 labs, or something like Julians audiosynthesis. I'd like to hear it against a valve DAC also to see if its a chalk and cheese type of difference (probably)

Shame you cant demo these from the shops !

Chris

 

Coming soon...

I wouldn't be at all surprised if it sounded pretty similar to the Shigaraki. My expectation is, at most, that the differences will be subtle. Watch this space.

-- Ian

 

Ian,
I'll lay odds mike's will be more ballsy, yours will be more natural in the mids, and a more refined, but as you say it won't chalk and cheese, when Mike adds a psu gets rid of those crap regs, that'll more than even it up

 

What's crap about those regs Tone? I thought that as they were discrete they were better? The PSU upgrade I'm thinking of doing would just be a straight swap for the 12V DC wall wart so the regs would still be there...

Michael.

 

For the price the NOS DAC went for it'd almost be more worthwhile getting the Scott Nixon DAC (the one with no output stage, not the Tube or Buffered ones). Then you can add a dedicated PSU afterwards.

I bid on it as well but based on previous highest bids of $170 and $190, $260 just seemed way too high.

 

well mine's arrived.

Its the password version, with the power tx inside the case.

Putting it in, intially, it seemed very quiet.

I have only had it on 5mins, but a lot more thwack in the bass than my resident denon 835, which replaced my long standing ki63, slightly less coloured and purer sounding than the ki.

so in summary so far much better bass, prat, too, natural on drums, that kind of texture you don't get much.

It seems like a whole layer of noise and hash has gone, the denon now seems very bright, and energetic, but not in a nice way, tiring. The new one is so damn quiet in that sense.

Strange, but definately better, be interesting to see how it compares against Michael's one.