Okay well a while back Ya-Boo bought his TACT RCS2.2x over to my place and I plugged it into my system as a DAC and pre-amp. The improvements over using the DAC in the Behringer DEQ2496 and the Ming Da MC-7R pre-amp were quite obvious.
This lead me to think it was time to upgrade my DAC. The Ming Da pre-amp, I thought, was pretty good as it was but was bettered by the TACT so if I could get a DAC pre-amp then that would be great.
The Stello DAC/pre-amp seemed good and was in my price range but I wanted to hold out for something better like a second hand Wadia or something.
Now I have always liked Thorstens Music First passive pre-amp so when I saw a Django come on to eBay for a good price I bought it. This freed my options up to get any DAC I liked.
The Django bought nearly all the benefits that using the TACT in my system did so I was quite keen to try a better DAC as well to see just how good it could get! The DAC, I thought, was probably more of a bottleneck than the pre-amp.
I went to Rochester Hi-Fi and borrowed the Chord DAC64. Took it home and plugged it in.
I gave it a day of music before making any judgements because it was pretty cold when I got it. However, it was a month run in already.
I wired it up by taking the AES/EBU signal from my transport into the Behringer to do room correction and then on out as AES/EBU into the DAC64.
After listening to it for quite a while and a/b'ing it with the Behringer DEQ2496 main outs…. There was not a lot of difference!
It took a lot of listening to come to the conclusion that the DAC64 did have the upper hand. It had slightly better imaging and slightly better bass control and dynamics. It did also have a slightly brighter sound though and I can see what people mean about the high end having a 'metallic sheen'. The difference really was VERY small.
This couldn't be right I thought! How can a £200 Behringer box of gadgets measure up to a £2,000 separate DAC?!
I then tried it plugged directly into the transport in case going through the DEQ2496, even just as digital, was limiting it. … Nope! I thought it sounded a tiny bit better than the DEQ2496 like this but then the DEQ2496 was being fed from an optical calbe and the DAC64 from a AES/EBU so it should have the upper hand.
Thinking about it for a while I decided that maybe my low-end transport was limiting it. I suppose the improvement the TACT RCS bought to my system must have been from swapping out the pre-amp, not the DAC as I had thought.
Back to Rochester Hi-Fi I went to borrow the Chord Blu transport as well! I told John that the DAC64 had not made an improvement on the DEQ2496 and he was quite happy to lend the transport as well
He was surprised though I think.
Doubtful at this point that the transport would make any difference either (after all, its only 1s and 0s), I plugged it in. Again it had the usual few hours to warm up before I dared to listen critically.
'Hmm.. it does sound a bit better I think
'
I got down to some serious listening last night and yes… I can say for sure that this transport made an improvement to my system. BUT did it take the DAC64 to a higher level over the £200 DEQ2496?
What do you think??
Nope!
The Chord Blu transport improved the sound considerably, but it improved both the DAC64 and the DEQ2496 equally!! In fact it narrowed the gap between them.
All music had a lot more detail and refinement and just seemed to flow more like 'real' music. The soundstage also seemed wider. More dynamics too. Lovely-jovely
Listening to jazz or vocal music, the DEQ2496 actually had the edge over the DAC64. Simply because the unnatural treble made the vocals and acoustic instruments sound unnatural. The DEQ2496 sounded more 'organic'. It is almost like the DAC64 has some harmonic excitement in the treble as well as something like a .25dB boost from about 10KHz up.
On classical the DAC64 did have the advantage though. The treble helped to give better definition to the soundstage and the slightly better dynamics helped as well.
Now one of the reasons I thought the DEQ2496 might be able to keep up with the DAC64 with this new transport is because it upsamples to 88.2KHz, thus letting the DEQ2496 work in a higher sample rate. This is why I asked about transports with upsampling.
On the back of the Chord Blu transport there is a little switch as it happens. This switch changes between 44.1KHz and 88.2KHz so I switched it in to 44.1KHz to se if ti was sounding better because of higher sample rates or because it was simply a better transport. Weeeelll…. I think 88.2KHz has a slightly more open and detailed soundstage and treble… but it is really very hard to tell. It may just be my imagination. So yeah, the improvement was just because it was as better transport, not because of the up-sampling.
Throughout all of these different settings and tests the DEQ2496 kept a steady pace with the DAC64. Also throughout all of this the DAC64 had slightly better imaging and dynamics but was brighter and had a slightly unnatural 'excited' sounding treble. But the DEQ2496 was more natural and somehow easier to listen to and maybe more enjoyable. Oh, and one tenth the cost!
I believe with some mods to the DEQ2496 it could actually surpass the DAC64.
I am now on the lookout for a transport I can actually afford (£4k is too much!) and sounds about as good as the Blu.
Now… I know a lot of you peeps here will say I am talking rubbish or can't hear properly. I was very surprised as well and completely expected the DAC64 to beat the DEQ2496 in to the ground. But it didn't. I am happy to show this to anyone who wants to drag a DAC64 down to my place or can come to hear it in the next week before I take it back to the shop. I would actually like someone to confirm what I am hearing!
Also, before anyone suggests that my system jst isn't revealing enough t show the difference… well that's rubbish. My system is VERY, VERY revealing. To me, most of what Hi-Fi is about is to hear the most detail possible on the disc. In a pleasant sounding way of course. I won't brag too much about my system, anyone who doubts it or wants to hear it is more than welcome to turn up and do so.
I like the look of the 47Labs 4716 transport, what do you think of this? I want DETAIL coming out ma ears and good dynamics and imaging. Can it be had for £1k? Even secondhand?
My system is described in full on the 'my system' thread.
